Author: Charles Spurgeon

Pray with Spurgeon: A New Years Prayer — God be glorified!

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Now do we hoist sail and draw up anchor to sail into another year. O blessed pilot of the future as of the past, we are so happy to leave all to you; but in leaving all to you we have one wish, and it is that you would in the next year glorify your name in us more than in any other year of our lives.

Perhaps this may involve deeper trial, but let it be if we can glorify God. Perhaps this may involve the being cast aside from the service that we love; but we would prefer to be laid aside if we could glorify you the better. Perhaps this may involve the ending of all life’s pleasant work and the being taken home—well, your children make no sort of stipulations with their God, but this one prayer ascends from all true hearts this morning, “Father, glorify your name.”

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy.” (Matthew 6:9)

“Our Father” is a familiar name, but the words “which art in heaven” suggest the reverence due unto him. Our Father and yet in heaven: in heaven and yet our Father. May his name be treated reverently, and may all that is about him—his Word and his gospel—be regarded with the deepest awe! It is for us so to walk before the Lord in all lowliness, that all shall see that we reverence the character of the thrice-holy One. Then can we truly pray, “Hallowed be thy name”, when we hallow it ourselves.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Happy New Year!

I’ve been challenging parents to make a commitment to read the Bible to their kids every day this year. Let’s spend a Year in the Word with our families.

No matter how old your kids are, they NEED God’s Word and you CAN create godly habits in their lives.

Parents, you really can do it. You don’t need to have all the answers to start reading with your kids.

To help you, I’ve created some easy-to-use, interactive family devotionals that will give you everything you need to lead your kids to follow Jesus in just ten minutes each day.

Here’s what makes these devotionals unique:

  • You will cover every verse of Scripture (not just the popular stories)
  • You will train your kids to read the Bible for themselves (not just sit through it)

This year, we’ve been working really hard to make MORE family devotionals (now available for over 40 books of the Bible) and improve our existing family devotionals (like adding a short daily reading to explain how every Old Testament passage points to Jesus).

Find these family devotionals and some other resources for making 2024 a Year in the Word right here.

Weekend Edition: God, hear the prayers of your church

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PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH (BY SPURGEON)

Lord, listen to the voice of your children’s cry this morning as we gather. Wherever there is a sincere heart seeking for greater holiness, answer that request; or, wherever there is a broken spirit seeking for reconciliation with you, be pleased to answer it now. You know where there is prayer, though it be unuttered, and even the lips do not move.

Oh, hear the tax collector who dares not lift his eyes to heaven; hear him while he cries, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you. Grant peace and rest to every troubled spirit within this house of worship; yes, and to all such all over the world, who now desire to turn their faces to the cross, and to see God in Christ Jesus reconciling them unto himself.

Amen.

GET A FREE COURSE

Thanks to Midwestern Seminary for sponsoring the Weekend Edition of this newsletter.

My friends at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary have put together a GREAT video class from Jared Wilson that unpacks exactly how God’s story really can impact every part of your life.

It’s called “The Story of Everything” and it’s available FOR FREE right now.

Click here to get started with this FREE seminary-level course.

WEEKEND LONG READ (SERMON BY SPURGEON)

Sermon for New Year’s Day

The newness which Jesus brings is bright, clear, heavenly, enduring. We are at this moment specially ready for a new year. The most of men have grown weary with the old cry of depression of trade and hard times; we are glad to escape from what has been to many a twelve-months of great trial. The last year had become wheezy, croaking, and decrepit, in its old age; and we lay it asleep with a psalm of judgment and mercy. We hope that this newborn year will not be worse than its predecessor, and we pray that it may be a great deal better. At any rate, it is new, and we are encouraged to couple with it the idea of happiness, as we say one to another, “I wish you a happy New Year.”

Read the full sermon from the Spurgeon Center for Biblical Preaching at Midwestern Seminary.

A FREE RESOURCE FROM MIDWESTERN

The Christians’ Connection to Moses’s Law

How should we respond to the commands in the Old Testament? Are we bound to keep these commands? Some of them? None of them?

Read the full article on For the Church

PREPARE FOR MINISTRY AT MIDWESTERN

What Jesus purchased is precious. We’ve made it our purpose. Midwestern Seminary exists for the Church, and we serve the church by biblically educating God-called men and women to be and make disciples of Jesus Christ. If you’re called to serve the church, train with us, for the Church.

Pray with Spurgeon: God, be known in all the earth

Get a prayer from Spurgeon in your inbox every day. Subscribe to the Pray with Spurgeon newsletter for free.

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Great God, we long that you would be known to the ends of the earth, that the idols may be utterly abolished. We long that false doctrine may fly like birds of darkness before the light and your coming. Reign in the hearts of our fellow men. Lord, subdue sin, and under your feet let drunkenness, and unchastity, and oppression, and every form of wickedness be put away by the gospel of Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask him.” (Matthew 6:8)

God does not need us to pray for his information, for he “knows the things you need,” nor to repeat the prayer over and over for his persuasion, for as our Father he is willing to bless us. Therefore let us not be superstitious and dream that there is virtue in “many words.” In the multitude of words, even in prayer, there wanteth not sin.

Repetitions we may have, but not “vain repetitions.” Counting beads, and reckoning the time occupied in devotion, are both idle things. Christians’ prayers are measured by weight, and not by length. Many of the most prevailing prayers have been as short as they were strong.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

An Advanced Bible Reading Plan

Yesterday, I recommended a great Bible reading plan that anyone can pick up and learn from. For more advanced readers who are looking to really to expand their knowledge of Scripture (and how it fits together) in 2024, I have another plan to recommend. This is the reading plan I’m planning to use in 2024!

God’s Glory in Salvation Through Judgment by Jim Hamilton is a biblical theology that shows how all of Scripture fits together. It’s a massive read (550+ pages), but if we break it out over the course of an entire year, reading this book will be a simple task.

Some folks have put together a reading plan that walks through the whole Bible in a year and pairs the daily Bible reading with the corresponding sections from Hamilton’s book. I was surprised to see that you’ll rarely read more than 3–4 pages from Hamilton each day. Get the printable reading plan here.

I’m really looking forward to using this plan in 2024, and if you’re looking for an advanced Bible reading plan to grow your knowledge of God and his Word, I hope you’ll join me.

Buy God’s Glory in Salvation Through Judgment:

Pastor, preach to sinners (and point them to Jesus)

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ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

The more vile a man is, the more eagerly I invite him to believe in Jesus. A sense of sin is all we have to look for, as ministers. We preach to sinners; and let us know that a man will take the title of sinner to himself, and we then say to him, “Look unto Christ, and ye shall be saved.” “Look,” this is all he demands of you, and even this he gives you. If you look to yourself, you are damned; you are a vile miscreant, filled with loathsomeness, corrupt and corrupting others. But look here! Do you see that man hanging on the cross? Do you behold his agonized head drooping meekly down upon his breast? Do you see that thorny crown, causing drops of blood to trickle down his cheeks? Do you see his hands pierced? Sinner, do you hear him shriek, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” Do you hear him cry, “It is finished?” Do you mark his head hang down in death? See that side pierced with the spear, and the body taken from the cross?

Those hands were nailed for you; those feet gushed gore for you; that side was opened wide for you; and if you want to know how thou can find mercy, there it is! “Look!” “Look unto me!” Look no longer to Moses. Look no longer to Sinai. Come here and look to Calvary, to Calvary’s victim, and to Joseph’s grave. And look to the man who near the throne sits with his Father, crowned with light and immortality. “Look! sinner,” he says, this morning, to you, “Look unto me, and be ye saved.” It is in this way God teaches that there is none beside him; because he makes us look entirely to him, and utterly away from ourselves.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe our hope in the midst of suffering.

Whatever happens to me, I trust in you. Down goes the anchor; that ship will never drift far out to sea. “O my God, I trust in you.” Can you say that, dear friends? Then, if you are in the dark, you are as safe as if you were in the light, for still this anchor holds: “O my God, I trust in you.”

Pray with Spurgeon: Anything good in me is from God

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

We cannot cast crowns at his feet, for we have none as yet, but if there is any virtue, if there is any praise, if there is about us anything of grace and good repute, we ascribe it all to God. We cannot veil our faces with our wings, for we have none, but we veil them with something better than angelic wings, the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. With these we cover our faces, with these we cover our feet, and with these we fly up to God in holiest fellowship of God Glory, and honor, and power, and dominion be unto him who sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and for ever.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“When you pray, don’t babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words.” (Matthew 6:7)

To repeat a form of prayer a very large number of times has always seemed to the ignorantly religious to be a praiseworthy thing; but assuredly it is not so. It is a mere exercise of memory, and of the organs of noise-making: and it is absurd to imagine that such a parrot exercise can be pleasing to the living God.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

A New Bible Reading Plan for 2024

Reading the Bible in a year can be an incredible habit, but it can also be challenging to know how it all fits together.

And that’s why I love the CSB Day-by-Day Chronological Bible — it features a daily reading plan that covers the whole Bible in one year, with readings arranged in chronological order (the order that the events took place, rather than the traditional order of books in our English Bibles).

The CSB Day-by-Day Chronological Bible also features brief daily notes to help you remember your place in the story (and who all of those kings and prophets are, exactly 😅).

The study notes are written by George Guthrie, who is a great New Testament scholar.

Reading the Bible chronologically in 2023 will grow your knowledge of the Bible and your love for God. And I know the Day-by-Day Chronological Bible will be a great resource to help you along the way.

Buy the CSB Day-by-Day Chronological Bible:

Pray with Spurgeon: We love God in Christ

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

With heart and mind, and memory and fear, and hope and joy, we worship the Most High. It is right for us to take our shoes from off our feet when we draw near to God, for the place where we stand is holy ground. If God in the bush demanded the un-sandaled foot of the prophet, how much more shall God in Christ Jesus? With lowliest reverence, with truest love, we worship God in Christ Jesus, uniting with all the redeemed host above, with angels and principalities and powers.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6)

As the very soul of prayer lies in communion with God, we shall pray best when all our attention is confined to him; and we shall best reach our end of being accepted by him when we have no regard to the opinion of anyone else. Secret prayer is truly heard and openly answered in the Lord’s own way and time. Our King reigns “in secret,” there he sets up his court, and there will he welcome our approaches. We are not where God sees when we court publicity, and pray to obtain credit for our devotion.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Resources to lead your kids to follow Jesus

Two things that I know with certainty:

  1. Your kids need to know Jesus.
  2. Our lives are crazy, and teaching our kids about Jesus can seem daunting.

But here’s the thing: Parents, you CAN lead your kids to follow Jesus.

You don’t need a seminary degree or a monthly family retreat — you need the Spirit of God, an open Bible, and a commitment to prioritize discipleship at home.

Parents, this week I’m challenging you to make a commitment in the new year — to make 2024 a Year in the Word by reading the Bible to your kids every day.

To help you get started, we’ve created some practical resources:

  • (FREE) 6 practical steps to (actually) make family devotions a daily habit.
  • (FREE) Printable habit tracker you can use to stay focused and reward success.
  • (Paid Subscription) Simple family devotionals that give everything you need to teach your kids the Bible in ten minutes each day.

Ready to take the challenge?

Find (free and paid) resources to help you on GodCenteredFamily.org.

Pray with Spurgeon: Don’t just pray for daily bread

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

We fear that we often begin our prayer with petitions for ourselves, and put our daily bread before your kingdom, and the pardoning of our sins before the hallowing of your name. We would not do so today, but guided by our Lord’s model of prayer, we would first pray for your glory; and here, great God, we would adore you. You have made us and not we ourselves. We are your people, and the sheep of your pasture. All glory be unto you, Lord, the only living and true God.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward.” (Matthew 6:5)

These religionists were not seekers of God, but seekers after popularity; men who twisted even devotion into a means for self-aggrandizement. They chose places and times which would render their saying of prayers conspicuous. The synagogues and the corners of the streets suited them admirably; for their aim was “that they may be seen of men.” They were seen. They had what they sought for. This was their reward, and the whole of it.

Lord, let me never be so profane as to pray to you with the intent of getting praise for myself.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Parents, teach your kids the Bible in 2024

Like many of you, I’m a parent. One of my greatest desires for my kids is that they would give their lives to passionately following Jesus. More than just “getting them into heaven,” I want my kids to have a life-transforming relationship with God that will shape their lives today (and forever).

In a world of distractions, kids need the Bible more than anything. Parents, you are better equipped than anyone to teach it to them.

So here’s my challenge to parents: read the Bible to your kids every day of 2024.

No matter how old they are,
No matter how busy you are,
No matter how unqualified you think you are…

Let’s make 2024 a “Year in the Word” for our families.

Ready to take the challenge?

Find (free and paid) resources to help you on GodCenteredFamily.org.

Weekend Edition: May Jesus be glorified at Christmas

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PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH (BY SPURGEON)

O Jesus, Son of the Highest, we know that the truth is powerful, because you are the soul of it—the very essence of it. Put your life into it, we pray. May the Eternal Spirit go with every word which God-sent ministers shall proclaim this weekend on Christmas Eve and Christmas, and may the Lord grant that as the mists fly before the sun, and the clouds before the wind, so error and superstition may be driven away by the rising of the Sun of Righteousness in all the glory of his brightness.

Amen.

SEMINARY SCHOLARSHIPS AND MORE

Thanks to Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Spurgeon College for sponsoring the Weekend Edition.

Right now, Midwestern is hosting their annual 12 days of Christmas giveaway. Every day from Dec. 13–24, they are giving away some incredible prizes to any prospective student who submits an application.

Highlights include the Preaching the Word commentary set, a new MacBook, and a $5,000 scholarship for seminary.

Start (or finish) your application today and be entered to win.

WEEKEND LONG READ (SERMON BY SPURGEON)

A Visit to Bethlehem

Editor’s Note: This is one of my all-time favorite Spurgeon sermons. In this sermon, he looks at the Christmas story from a number of different angles and perspectives to help us understand the incredible good news that had arrived in the birth of this child.

Read the full sermon from the Spurgeon Center for Biblical Preaching at Midwestern Seminary.

A FREE RESOURCE FROM MIDWESTERN

Have Yourself A Subversive Little Christmas

The more we glam up Christmas, the more the sacred is covered up by surface glamour. True beauty, meaning, and transcendence can be lost if we are desensitized by glitzy distractions.

The biblical Christmas story by contrast is less suited for cultural hype and marketing agendas. It consistently invites us to peer beneath the surface. At Christmas, God hides the best gifts in plain sight. He wraps them in sacred simplicity.

Read the full list on For the Church

PREPARE FOR MINISTRY AT MIDWESTERN

What Jesus purchased is precious. We’ve made it our purpose. Midwestern Seminary exists for the Church, and we serve the church by biblically educating God-called men and women to be and make disciples of Jesus Christ. If you’re called to serve the church, train with us, for the Church.

Pray with Spurgeon: May all people seek healing from Jesus

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

We cannot leave off our prayer when we have prayed for your people, though we have asked large things; we want you to look among the thousands and millions round about us who do not know you. Lord, look on the masses who go nowhere to worship. Have pity upon them; Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. Give a desire to hear your Word. Send upon the people some desire after their God.

O Lord take sinners in hand yourself. Oh, come and reach obstinate, stubborn minds; let the careless and the frivolous begin to think upon eternal things. May there be an uneasiness of heart, a sticking of the arrows of God in their loins, and may they seek the great physician and find healing this very day. Ah! Lord, you say “Today, if ye will hear his voice,” and we take up the echo. Save men today, even today. Bring them your Spirit in power that they may be willing to rest in Christ. Lord hear, forgive, accept and bless, for Jesus’ sake.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star at its rising and have come to worship him.’” (Matthew 2:1–2)

When wise men seek our king they are wise indeed. These were devout men, to whom the stars spoke of God. An unusual luminary was understood by them to indicate the birth of the coming man for whom many in all lands were looking. Stars might guide us if we were willing to be led. Lord Jesus, make everything speak to me concerning you, and may I be truly led till I find you!

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Christmas Gift Idea for Christian Men

I’m really hoping that my new resource, The God Centered Husband One-Year Journal will help a lot of Christian men grow as husbands in 2024.

This hands-on resource gives men a blank page to fill out every week to help them consider what burdens their wife will have this week and how they can help her.

It also has a lot of bonus features, like 52 conversation starters for couples, a one-year Bible reading plan, weekly devotionals to remind you of Jesus’ love for imperfect husbands.

I hope you’ll grab one for yourself (your wife will thank you later!)

And if you aren’t a husband, I hope you’ll buy copies for all of the married Christian men on your shopping list.

I think this resource will really make a difference in a lot of marriages, so I hope you’ll grab a copy today!

Buy The God Centered Husband One-Year Journal on Amazon (Paperback edition)

Pastor, treasure Christ this Christmas (and serve him!)

Get wisdom encouragement for Spurgeon in your inbox every week. Subscribe to the The Pastor’s Note newsletter for free.

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

The earth brings forth according to the period of the year, and with man there is a time for every purpose under heaven. At this season, the world is engaged in congratulating itself and in expressing its complimentary wishes for the good of its citizens; let me suggest extra and more solid work for Christians.

As we think today of the birth of the Savior, let us aspire after a fresh birth of the Savior in our hearts; that as he is already “formed in us the hope of glory,” we may be “renewed in the spirit of our minds;” that we may go again to the Bethlehem of our spiritual nativity and do our first works, enjoy our first loves, and feast with Jesus as we did in the holy, happy, heavenly days of our conversion. Let us go to Jesus with something of that youthful freshness and excessive delight which was so manifest in us when we looked to him at the first; let him be crowned anew by us, for he is still adorned with the dew of his youth, and remains “the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe the glories of Christ’s incarnation.

Alexander the Great was a great master of men, and one of the reasons why all his soldiers loved him so enthusiastically was that if they were on a long march, Alexander did not ride, but tramped along in the heat and dust with the common soldiery. And when the day was hot, and they brought his majesty water, he put it aside and said, “The sick soldiers want it more than I. I will not drink until every soldier has a drink.”

So is it with Christ. In all our afflictions he is afflicted, and he will not have joy until he gives joy to his people. Yes, he has done more than Alexander, for he emptied himself of all his glories, and gave himself to die upon the cross, and consummated the redemption of his people by his own agonies.

RESOURCE FOR PASTORS

Special thanks to the Christian Standard Bible for sponsoring the Shepherding with Spurgeon newsletter this year. I’m so thankful for the CSB and their partnership over the past year.

Beginning next month, we’ll have a new annual sponsor for 2024 that I know will be a blessing to you and your church.

Click here to learn more about the CSB (and request a free CSB Bible).