Author: Charles Spurgeon

Pray with Spurgeon: The cross is my only hope

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Gracious God, we praise you with our whole hearts for the wondrous revelation of your love in Christ Jesus our Lord. We think every day of his passion, for all our hope lies in his death: but as often as we think upon it, we are still filled with astonishment that you should so love the world as to give your only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Oh, that heaven’s eternal darling should come to earth to be made a man, and in manhood’s form to be despised and rejected of the very men whom he came to bless; and then should be made to bear the sin of many and to be numbered with the transgressors, and, being found in that number, to die a transgressor’s death, a felon’s death upon the gibbet of the cross. Oh, this surpasses all belief if it had not indeed been actually so: and if the sure word of prophecy had not of old declared it, we could not have imagined it. It would have seemed blasphemy to have suggested such a thought; yet you have done it.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love.” (1 John 4:18)

There is a loving, holy fear, which is never cast out. Filial fear grows as love grows. That sacred dread, that solemn awe of God, we must ever cultivate; but we are not afraid of him. Dear heart, God is your best Friend, your choicest love.

You long to approach him. Though he is a consuming fire, you know that he will only consume what you want to have consumed; and will purify you, and make your gold to shine more brightly because the consumable alloy is gone from it. He will not consume you, but only that which would work for your hurt if it were left within you. Refining fire, go through my heart! Consume as you will! I long to have sin consumed, that I may be like my God. Say you not so, my brethren?

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Big Theology for Little Hearts

Parents, we have a responsibility to teach our children the wonders of who God is and what he has done. Teaching theology is not an optional hobby for parents, it is a command from God. And this command applies to even the youngest ages.

A great resource for teaching theology to the littlest among your family is the “Big Theology for Little Hearts” series, by Devon and Jessica Provencher (published by Crossway). Help your children understand what God is like with these three board books. Each one is full of simple language, engaging illustrations, and rich truth about who God is.

The first three books in this series are available now:

Pray with Spurgeon: We live for God

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Lord bless us. We live for you; our one aim in life is to glorify you, you know. For you we hope we would gladly die. Yes, for you we will cheerfully labor while strength is given.

Oh, send prosperity, and not to us only, but to all workers for Jesus, to all missions in foreign lands, and missions in the heathendom at home. Bless all of your churches far and near. The Lord send plenteous prosperity to all the hosts of his Israel. May your kingdom come! 

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“So God made the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that crawl on the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:25)

After each day’s work, God looks on it; and it is well for us, every night, to review our day’s work. Some people’s work will not bear looking at and tomorrow becomes all the worse to them because today was not considered and its sin repented of by them. But if we mark the errors of today, a repetition of them may be avoided tomorrow. Only God can look on a day’s work and say of it, as a whole and in every part, that it is good. As for us, our best things need sprinkling with the blood of Christ, which we need not only on the lintels and side posts of our house but even on the altar and the mercy seat at which we worship God.

I found this verse and commentary in the Spurgeon Study Bible. This month only, you can get the Spurgeon Study Bible for 50% off — use promo code SPURGEONBOOKS. Click here to learn more.*

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Find freedom by fearing God.

The fear of God is a troubling and confusing phrase for many. We know that it appears all over Scripture, but we don’t know what it means. We know it means more than basic “respect” or “reverence.” But we also don’t feel right running scared from our loving Father.

A new book, Rejoice and Tremble: The Surprising Good News of the Fear of the Lord by Michael Reeves is a beautifully helpful guide to understanding and applying the fear of the Lord.

Reeves shows that the fear of the Lord is not a negative fleeing from God, but a wonder-filled joy in God and all that he is. The fear of God is the path to freedom from all anxiety. Reading this book filled my heart with joy and love for the God who must be feared, and I know that it will do the same for you.

Buy Rejoice and Tremble:

Note: I received a review copy of this book from Crossway.

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Pray with Spurgeon: Without God, we can’t do anything

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Look, at this time, we ask you, give my local church church greater prosperity. Add to us daily. Knit and unite us together in love. Pardon church sins. Have mercy upon us that we do not more for you. Accept what we are enabled to do.

Qualify each one of us to be vessels fit for the Master’s use; then use each one of us according to the measure of our capacity. Will you be pleased to bless the various works carried on by the church; may they all prosper. The Lord bless these works; for unless you build the house, they labour in vain that build it (Psalm 127:1).

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Unless the Lord builds a house, its builders labor over it in vain; unless the Lord watches over a city, the watchman stays alert in vain.” (Psalm 127)

The word vain is the key word here. Men desiring to build know that they must labor, and accordingly they put forth all their skill and strength; but let them remember that if the Lord is not with them their designs will prove failures. Without God we are nothing. Great houses have been erected by ambitious men; but like the baseless fabric of a vision they have passed away, and scarce a stone remains to tell where once they stood.

Not only do we now spend our strength for nothing without the Lord, but all who have ever labored apart from him come under the same sentence. Trowel and hammer, saw and plane are instruments of vanity unless the Lord be the Master-builder.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

A guide for taking children through the Old Testament.

Often parents want to read the Bible to their kids, but aren’t always sure how, especially in the Old Testament. Long Story Short by Marty Machowski is an excellent guide for bringing your family on a journey through God’s Word.

The book contains 78 weeks of ten-minute devotions to help your family read, remember, understand, and apply the Old Testament, while understanding how Christ is the hero of the whole story. This is a great resource for any family.

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Pray with Spurgeon: God’s grace helps us believe

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Oh, to love the Savior with a passion that can never cool! Oh, to believe in God with a confidence that can never stagger! Oh, to hope in God with an expectation that can never be dim! Oh, to delight in God with a holy overflowing rejoicing that can never be stopped; so that we might live to glorify God at the highest bent of our powers, living with enthusiasm—burning, blazing, being consumed with the indwelling God who works all things in us according to his will!

Thus, Lord, would we praise and pray at the same time; confess and acknowledge our responsibilities; but also bless the free, the sovereign grace that makes us what we are. O God of the eternal choice, O God of the ransom purchased on the tree, O God of the effectual call, Father, Son and Spirit, our adoration rises to heaven like the smoke from the altar of incense. Glory and honor and majesty and power and dominion and might be unto the one only God, forever and ever (Jude 25), and all the redeemed by blood will say Amen.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.” (Jude 24–25)

Jude says, “Both now and ever.” Well, we will attend to the “ever” as eternity rolls on; but let us attend to the praise of God “now”—at this moment.

Come, brothers and sisters, think of what you owe to him who has kept you to this day, and will not let you go. Think of where you might have been; and think, I may say, of where you used to be, in your unregenerate state. Yet you are not there now; but here you are, without self righteousness, made to differ from your fellow-men, entirely through the grace of God. You have been kept, perhaps twenty years; thirty years, forty years,—possibly, fifty years. Well, unto him be the glory; give him the glory even now.

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A guide to help you grow in prayer and other disciplines

Books on prayer and other spiritual disciplines are usually either unbiblical or unpractical. That’s why Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald S. Whitney is such a valuable resource.

This book is practical (It will offer actual guidance to improve your prayer life and other spiritual disciplines), but it is also biblical (every recommendation is rooted in rich, biblical understanding of the spiritual disciplines).

God has a plan for you to grow in godliness, to be more like Christ. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life will guide you on that path. I first read this book five years ago, but I return to it frequently for help with prayer, Bible reading, and other important practices.

Buy Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life:

Pray with Spurgeon: Anything good is from God (not us)

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Now, Lord, we ask you to accept of us this morning whatever offerings we can bring. We bring our hearts to you, full of love to you for what you have done; full of gratitude, full of faith, full of hope, full of joy. We feel glad in the Lord. But we do confess that if there be anything acceptable in these our offerings, they are all first given us of you. No praise comes from us until it is first wrought in us, for

“Every virtue we possess,
And every victory won;
And every thought of holiness,
Are yours, great God, alone.”

Well may we lay those fruits at your feet that were grown in your garden, and that gold and silver and frankincense which you yourself did bestow: only first give us more!

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. By it, we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28–29)

Many people say, “God out of Christ is a consuming fire;” but Paul wrote nothing of the sort. It is “our God”—and he is not “our God” except as we view him in Christ—who is “a consuming fire.” How greatly we ought to reverence him, and how earnestly we ought to ask of him that the divine fire may burn up everything in us that ought to be consumed, that only that may remain which will first endure the great shaking, and which will afterwards endure the great burning. May the Lord graciously grant to each one of us that grace which shall abide the fire!

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Preach the gospel to yourself (here’s how)

We must constantly remind ourselves of the work that Christ has done to suffer, die, and rise again for sinners — for me. Spurgeon called those reminders “preaching the gospel to yourself.” This is an important discipline that we have to cultivate to stay rooted in God’s grace.

One tool to help you preach the gospel to yourself is Note to Self by Joe Thorn. This book contains 48 short devotions that are formatted as simple notes written for your own heart. Read them to yourself, preach them to yourself, knowing that you need these truths to live.

Note to Self is a great tool for remembering that your only hope is Christ, not your own works. I know these short devotions will encourage you and increase your love for him.

Buy Note to Self:

Pray with Spurgeon: Why doubt the mighty God?

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

O dear Savior, there is room for the greatest faith to be exercised upon your blessed person and work.

O God, the Most High and all-sufficient, there is room for the greatest confidence in you.

O Divine Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, there is now sufficient room for the fullest faith in your operations. Grant us this faith. Oh, work it in us now, while, at the same time, we do confess that if we have it not, it is our shame and sin. We make no excuse for unbelief, but confess it with detestation of it, that we should ever have doubted the truthful, the mighty, the faithful God. Yet, Lord, we shall fall into the like sin again, unless the grace that makes us know it to be sin shall help us to avoid it.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“You killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead; we are witnesses of this.” (Acts 3:15)

See how plainspoken Peter is—how boldly he presses home upon the crowd around him the murder of Christ, the rejection of the Messiah? It took no small amount of courage and faith to speak like that, especially to persons who were full of admiration of him before and who would soon be filled with indignation against him. A man can speak boldly against those who are his enemies, but when people begin to flatter you and admire you, a softness steals over the bravest heart, and he is inclined to be gentle. I admire Peter that he puts it thus so plainly.

This verse and commentary were taken from the Spurgeon Study Bible. This month only, you can get the Spurgeon Study Bible for 50% off — use promo code SPURGEONBOOKS. Click here to learn more.*

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Teach kids that sin separates, God restores

The story of the Bible begins with God’s people living in close fellowship with him in the Garden, but quickly being thrown out as a direct consequence to sin. The rest of the Bible tells the stunning story of God doing the work to save his people and bring them back to himself.

The Garden, The Curtain, and the Cross by Carl Laferton is a book to help kid’s understand this important aspect of the Bible’s big story: “Because of your sin, you can’t come in, But Jesus died to take our sin, so now we all can be with him!”

This is a must-have for any family’s library, a great resource for pointing your kids to their great need for Christ.

Buy The Garden, The Curtain, and the Cross:

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Pray with Spurgeon: We need more childlike faith

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

We would have never looked with these bleary eyes of ours to that dear cross, unless the heavenly light had first shone, and the heavenly finger had taken the thick scales away.

We trace our faith to that same God who gave us life, and we ask now that we may have more of it. Lord, maintain the faith you have created; strengthen it, let it be more and more simple. Deliver us from any sort of reliance upon ourselves, whatever shape that reliance might take, and let our faith in you become more childlike every day that we live; for, O dear Savior, there is room for the greatest faith to be exercised upon your blessed person and work.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“My foot stands on level ground; I will bless the Lord in the assemblies.” (Psalm 26:12)

The song began in the minor, but it has now reached the major key. Saints often sing themselves into happiness. The level ground upon which our foot stands is the sure, covenant faithfulness, eternal promise and immutable oath of the Lord of Hosts; there is no fear of falling from this solid basis, or of its being removed from under us.

Established in Christ Jesus, by being vitally united to him, we have nothing left to occupy our thoughts but the praises of our God. Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, and when assembled, let us not be slow to contribute our portion of thanksgiving. Each saint is a witness to divine faithfulness, and should be ready with his testimony. As for the slanderers, let them howl outside the door while the children sing within.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE*

Study the Bible with Spurgeon himself

Spurgeon had an incredible clarity to read, understand, and apply Scripture. Even today, hundreds of years after his death, Spurgeon’s preaching and writing still has tremendous power — because it’s rooted in Scripture.

The Spurgeon Study Bible is an incredible resource to benefit from Spurgeon’s insight during your daily Bible reading. It really does feel like sitting down one-on-one to study the Bible with Spurgeon himself.

The study Bible contains hundreds of notes taken right from Spurgeon’s sermons, as well as a short biography of Spurgeon, 20 outlines of his earliest sermons (in his own handwriting), an introduction from Spurgeon for each book of the Bible, and more. The Bible is available in the CSB, KJV, and Spanish RVR 1960 translations.

For this month only, the Spurgeon Study Bible is 50% off for “Pray with Spurgeon” subscribers. Just use promo code SPURGEONBOOKS when you check out.

Buy the Spurgeon Study Bible on LifeWay.com (Use promo code SPURGEONBOOKS to save 50%)

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Pray with Spurgeon: Jesus will heal our hearts

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Help me to make an acceptable confession of sin, with much mourning, with much deep regret, with much self-loathing, and with the absence of anything like a pretense to merit or to excuse. Here we stand, Lord, a company of tax-collectors and sinners, with whom Jesus deigns to sit down.

Heal us, Emanuel! Here we are, needing that healing. Good Physician, here is work for you; come and manifest your healing power! There are many of us who have looked unto Jesus and are lightened, but we do confess that our faith was the gift of God. We would have never looked with these bleary eyes of ours to that dear cross, unless first the heavenly light had shone, and the heavenly finger had taken the thick scales away.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“But I live with integrity; redeem me and be gracious to me.” (Psalm 26:11)

Here is the lover of godliness entering his personal protest against unrighteous gain. He is a Nonconformist, and is ready to stand alone in his Nonconformity. Trusting in God, the Psalmist resolves that the plain way of righteousness shall be his choice.

Yet he is by no means a boaster, or a self-righteous vaunter of his own strength, for he cries for redemption and pleads for mercy. Our integrity is not absolute nor inherent, it is a work of grace in us, and is marred by human infirmity; we must, therefore, resort to the redeeming blood and the throne of mercy, confessing that though we are saints among men, we must still bow as sinners before God.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

A gospel-saturated approach to racial reconciliation (for kids!)

All of the biggest issues in our day can only be healed by the power of the risen Christ. The current racial tension in our country is no exception. That’s why I love Trillia Newbell’s approach in God’s Very Good Idea.

This simple kid’s book tells the great story of the whole Bible, focusing on how God made all people in his image and saved different kinds of people (“Some with darker skin, some with lighter skin; some with straight hair, some with curly hair”).

With simple words, big theology, and delightful pictures, this book is a must-have for any child’s library.

Buy God’s Very Good Idea by Trillia Newbell:

Pray with Spurgeon: God, soften my heart

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

We come humbly, first of all acknowledging our many sins. How many they are we cannot calculate, how black they are, how deep their ill-desert; yet we do confess that we have sinned ourselves into hopeless misery, unless your free undeserved grace rescues us from it.

Lord, we thank you for any signs of repentance—give us more of it. Lay us low before you under a consciousness of our undeserving state. Let us feel and mourn the atrocity of our guilt. O God, we know a tender heart must come from you. By nature our hearts are stony, and we are proud and self-righteous.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Do not destroy me along with sinners, or my life along with men of bloodshed.” (Psalm 26:9)

Lord, when, like fruit, I must be gathered, put me not in the same basket with the best of sinners, much less with the worst of them. The company of sinners is so distasteful to us here, that we cannot endure the thought of being bound up in the same bundle with them to all eternity. Our comfort is, that the Great Husbandman discerns the tares from the wheat, and will find a separate place for distinct characters.

In the former verses we see that the Psalmist kept himself clear of profane persons, and this is to be understood as a reason why he should not be thrust into their company at the last. Let us think of the doom of the wicked, and the prayer of the text will forcibly rise to our lips; meanwhile, as we see the rule of judgment by which like is gathered to its like, we who have passed from death unto life have nothing to fear.

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Gospel-centered hope for your trials

Did you know that Spurgeon faced intense suffering throughout his life? He was beaten down with depression, physical illness, and more until he died at the early age of 57.

But whenever God’s people suffer, they learn. Spurgeon said, “In heaven we shall see that we had not one trial too many.” In the fire of suffering, Spurgeon was purified and given an incredible amount of wisdom on a Christian approach to weakness, pain, and suffering.

Recently, I collected some of Spurgeon’s best sermons on trials and suffering into a book, Spurgeon on Suffering: Reflections on Our Pain and God’s Grace. Reading these sermons has helped me view my suffering in a more biblical (and hopeful!) way. I know that they will encourage you as well.

Buy Spurgeon on Suffering on Amazon (Paperback or Kindle edition)

Pray with Spurgeon: All good comes from Jesus

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

We owe everything to God. Especially do we own this dependence when we come to deal with spiritual things. O God, we are less than nothing in the spiritual world. We do feel this growingly, and yet even to feel this is beyond our power. Your grace must give us even to know our need of grace. We are not willing to confess our own sinfulness until you show it to us. Though it stares us in the face, our pride denies it, and our own inability is unperceived by us.

We steal your power and call it our own till you compel us to say that we have no strength in ourselves. Now, Lord, would we acknowledge that all good must come of you, through Jesus Christ by your Spirit, if ever we are to receive it.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Lord, I love the house where you dwell, the place where your glory resides.” (Psalm 26:8)

In his church where God is had in honor at all times, where he reveals himself in the glory of his grace, and is proclaimed by his people as the Lord of all. We come not together as the Lord’s people to honor the preacher, but to give glory to God; such an occupation is most pleasant to the saints of the Most High.

What are those gatherings where God is not honored? Are they not an offense to his pure and holy eyes, and are they not a sad stumbling-block to the people of God? It brings the scalding-tear upon our cheek to hear sermons in which the honor of God is so far from being the preacher’s object, that one might almost imagine that the preacher worshipped the dignity of manhood, and thought more of it than of the Infinite Majesty of God.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

The biblical solution to arguing children

Earlier this week I recommended Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp. Today, I wanted to share one of my favorite excerpts from this book to show how paradigm-altering it can be for our parenting:

“Let’s take a familiar example from any home where there are two or more children. The children are playing and a fight breaks out over a particular toy. The classic response is ‘Who had it first?’ This response misses heart issues.’ Who had it first?’ is an issue of justice. Justice operates in the favor of the child who was the quicker draw in getting the toy. If we look at this situation in terms of the heart, the issues change.

“Now you have two offenders. Both children are displaying a hardness of heart toward the other. Both are being selfish. Both children are saying, ‘I don’t care about you or your happiness. I am only concerned about myself. I want this toy. My happiness depends on possessing it. I will have it and be happy regardless of what that means to you.’

“In terms of issues of the heart, you have two sinning children. Two children are preferring themselves before the other. Two children are breaking God’s law. Sure, the circumstances are different. One is taking the toy that the other has. The other is keeping the advantage. The circumstances are different, but the heart issue is the same—’I want my happiness, even at your expense.'”

Buy Shepherding a Child’s Heart: