Pray with Spurgeon: Jesus brings us to God by his blood

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Permit us, gracious Father, to come very near to you. May the drawings of the Divine Spirit now sweetly attract us to God; and, most blessed Jesus, fulfill your office as Mediator, bring us now near to God by your precious blood. Oh, for the power to pray rightly this morning! May I, your servant, have it largely, that he may be able to lead all this people, by the power of the Spirit, close to the mercy-seat.

We adore and bless and magnify our God; not only, O God, for what you are to us, but for what you are in yourself, for you are incomparably glorious. In you, all perfections shine.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Happy are the people who know the joyful shout; LORD, they walk in the light from your face.” (Psalm 89:15)

The practical effect of a saving knowledge of the gospel is a holy walk, a walk of communion with God. Dear friends, do you walk in that way? Do you know the joyful sound? Can you discern the difference between the true and the false gospel? Can you distinguish the contrast between the harmonies of the one and the discords of the other? Do you know the inner secret of the heavenly music? Has it ever vibrated in your own souls? Happy are you if this is the case with you.

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Pray with Spurgeon: God’s Blessings for this Week

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Oh bring home your prodigal children, and let such as are coming home be met by the loving Father; and may such as have come home have a feast of fat things today. May elder brethren today be made better tempered, be made more in sympathy with the great Father!

May there be blessings all round today for all of us, and so may we together bless and magnify your amazing and sacred name. O one God of Israel, whom we worship, let others worship whom they may; the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob is our God forever and ever, and we worship you, Oh Lord, in the name of Jesus Christ your only-begotten Son

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to him. When he came closer, he asked him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ ‘Lord,’ he said, ‘I want to see.’” (Genesis 1:1)

It is a great thing to know what you really do want. There are some persons who are so blind that they do not know that they are blind; and because they say, “We see,” therefore is their blindness the more intense. I fear that there is many a person who professes to pray, yet who, if Christ should come into the room, and say, “What do you want me to do for you?” would not know how to answer the question. This man did; and he said, very briefly, and very clearly, but in a very full way, “Lord, that I may receive my sight.”

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Pray with Spurgeon: God, bless your wandering children

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Oh, be very gracious to all your children under temptation; and if any are in very sharp trial, and are also conscious of having brought it upon themselves, which makes the trial worse than ever, yet of your mercy let the fullness of the power of your grace be manifest in them, that in the ages to come they may, with all saints declare the exceeding riches of your power and love in Christ Jesus.

And now, Lord, bless the unconverted that we will see this weekend, or who come into any place of worship. Be pleased to save them; let the eternal purpose be fulfilled in many today. Oh bring home your prodigal children, and let such as are coming home be met by the loving Father; and may such as have come home have a feast of fat things today.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“…so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:7)

Brethren, we are to be a show, an exhibition case, in which God will exhibit the riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Angels will count it a high joy to study the life of a regenerate man, to see him rise from death in sin to the glory of God in Christ Jesus. What is so precious in God’s esteem ought to excite our praise continually.

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Pray with Spurgeon: Why worry when God is our Father?

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Oh, for a day’s release from every care! Now break the bands of our yoke. And, oh that we could live above care in the weekdays too, casting all our care on him who cares for us (1 Peter 5:7), and leaving all in those wise hands that rule the world, and can well rule our mean affairs.

Today, gracious Lord, reproach your children and comfort them; also rebuke and reprove as may seem good to you; but oh, sanctify us for the skies, and prepare us for the place which you are preparing for us. The Lord be very mindful of all his sick servants at home, of any that are under depression of spirit, and especially of such as are near to die.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you.” (1 Peter 5:6–7)

His care, though tender and comprehensive, causes no anxiety to him, for his great mind is more than equal to the task. But our care ferments within us and threatens the destruction of our meager souls. We are to cast our care, which is folly, upon the Lord, for he exercises a care, which is wisdom. Care (worry) to us is exhausting, but God is all sufficient. Care to us is sinful, but God’s care of us is holy. Care distracts us from service, but the divine mind does not forget one thing while remembering another.

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Help children see the wonder of Jesus’ healing miracles

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Pray with Spurgeon: God, I am dedicated to you

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Oh may this prayer be living worship this morning, the bowing not of heads alone, but of hearts, and the closing not alone of the eyes to things that can be seen, but the closing of the eyelids of the thought to everything worldly. O Lord, imprison us in the grave of Christ today, that within those sacred walls we may find a chamber where our Lord shall reveal himself to us, as he does not reveal himself to the world (John 14:22).

You are a spring shut up, a fountain sealed, O Christ, to us, and we would be such for you; a garden enclosed for our Beloved, wherein he may take his delights. Our soul shall sing for joy, “I am my love’s and my love is mine; he feeds among the lilies” (Song of Solomon 6:3).

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.” (John 14:27)

Christian joy does not come from what we have, nor does sorrow come from what we lack. Our happiness does not come from the world, and neither does our depression—that is, if we live near to God. Our sorrows usually spring out of ourselves, and when self is conquered, sorrow is, to a great extent, banished from the human heart. We must get rid of this rebellion against the Most High, or else our hearts will continue to be troubled.

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Pray with Spurgeon: We don’t offer dead prayers

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

O Lord, give us more and more to have the new life; yes, and to have it more abundantly, for this is one of the objects of his coming. May the new life always rule us, may we walk by its power, may we have strength through its influence, may we be elevated by its energies, may we be indeed entirely subjugated, as to our own entire manhood, to the control of the Holy Spirit through the new-born life. We do pant for this.

We ask that we may be in the Spirit, and know the fullness of his quickening power. May we do nothing after the dead manner of formality. May there be no dead hymn, nor dead prayer.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Moses my servant is dead. Now you and all the people prepare to cross over the Jordan to the land I am giving the Israelites.” (Joshua 1:2)

May we not only be saved from but saved to. Saved from sin—that makes us safe. Saved to holiness—that makes us happy. May we realize our completeness in Christ this day and cease from the wanderings of fear. It is time we took possession of that goodly heritage the Lord has made our own, for in Christ Jesus “we have obtained an inheritance” and have the guarantee of it in our possession of the Spirit of God. We have lingered long enough in the wilderness.

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God’s Plan to Rid You of Sin and Make you Like Jesus

God doesn’t just want to save you from hell and leave you alone — he has a plan to redeem everything about you. He wants to rescue you from sin and bring you into a new life of loving and serving him.

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Pray with Spurgeon: God, crucify my sin

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

May grace so sanctify us that we may reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:11). O God, we have too much of the ill alive about us. Go on to crucify it: let it die and, painful and lingering though the death may be, may we reckon the thing to be dead, because it is crucified, and never treat it as though it were a living thing to be fed and to have provision made for it: but let it die, and let it be buried.

May those of us who bear in our body the marks of the Lord Jesus, be solemnly concerned that our baptism should be no fiction; but that we should be really baptized into the death of Christ with all the fullness of the deadening power that is about the sacred burial by fellowship with him.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:11)

Every believer is truly dead to sin, because Christ has died to sin. The Lord Jesus Christ is our covenant Head; and what he did, he did in the room, and place, and stead of his people; he did it all representatively on their behalf; so that, what he did, they virtually did through him as their Representative.

Always remember that the federal principle has been adopted by God in his dealings with the human race from the very beginning. We were all, representatively, in Adam; and, hence, Adam’s sin brought us all into transgression and condemnation, so that we have all become partakers in the result of Adam’s one sin. It was not actually ours, but it became ours by imputation, and it brought upon us all its terrible consequences because Adam was our federal head. In the same way, the Lord Jesus Christ is the federal Head and Representative of his people; and what he has done, he has done on their behalf, and it is reckoned as though they had done it themselves.

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Pray with Spurgeon: Jesus lives so we can die

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Our hearts devoutly believe that Christ has risen from the dead; but Lord, we want by your Holy Spirit to know the facts in their living power. We wish that we might have fellowship with our Lord, who is our Head, in all this. Oh, that we might know how to die with him, and to live with him in newness of life. O God, we do rejoice that the old man was crucified with him (Romans 6:6).

We would daily mortify the flesh with its affections and lusts. We wish to be to the world, to sin, to selfishness as dead and buried men; as dead men, out of mind, so would we be. Oh, that no faculty might hear the voice of the charmer when it charms us towards sin! May we be delivered from the mere power to obey the lusts of the flesh and the temptations of the devil.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin.” (Romans 6:6)

We are to regard ourselves as persons that have been dead. We are ourselves, it is true; and yet in another sense we are not our own selves. We are not to look upon ourselves as though we owed any kind of service to the power which we obeyed before we knew the Lord. We are new people, we have got a new life, and have entered upon a new existence—the old man is crucified with him.

There was no getting free from the power of sin, except by dying to it; but, being dead to sin, we are free from it; and, now being dead that way, we have entered into a new life that we might live as Christ lives.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

The Bible’s Big Story — A Musical for the Whole Family (Seriously)

Over the last year, my family has listened to The Greatest Story Ever Told: The Bible album by High Point Church almost every day. This is a super fun collection of songs that tells the story of the whole Bible for the whole family.

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Pray with Spurgeon: The Lord of Life Died for Me

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Most glorious Lord God, it is marvelous in our eyes that you should become incarnate, that your Son should take our flesh upon him. It surprises us greatly that the Lord of Life should condescend to die, and that the incorruptible One should be laid in the grave. We are full of loving gratitude, we are also full of adoring wonder. When we have stood at the tomb and looked into it, and thought of Jesus having laid there, when we have seen it open and knew that it was empty, we bless your name that even he died and was buried, and magnify you that he is risen again from the dead.

These great facts concerning our divine Lord are the foundation of our confidence in him. We bless you that they have been attested by such four-fold witness (the four gospels), and yet further that afterwards he appeared alive to so large a number of those who knew him, that the fact of his rising from the dead might never be questioned again.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:14)

The glory of the text is that we are perfected forever—not for tomorrow and then allowed to fall from grace; not for the next twenty years and then turned out of the covenant. The blood of Christ has been sprinkled on us; and, therefore, our standing before God is the standing of perfection. And we are always perfect, always fit to come to the throne of God, whatever our doubts, whatever our sins. I do not say this of our character. We come before God in our station not in our character; and, therefore, we may come as perfect people at all times.

If you want to continue studying the book of Hebrews, check out the Consider Him Scripture memorization booklet from Cemented Co. This beautiful resource will help you study, apply, and memorize five key passages from Hebrews. Click here to learn more.*

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Pray with Spurgeon: You do much for Christ, Christ did more for you

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Oh, Savior, grant us a glimpse of your great love. One flash of your eye is brighter than the noonday. One word from your lips will be sweeter to us and more full of music, than the harps of angels. Grant it to every one of your children all over the world, both to the sick and to the dying. Oh how gloriously will they die!

And now Lord, we ask you to bless our country at this time, and by your great and infinite mercy preserve us, we ask you, from war. Oh, that peace may reign yet all over the world. May there be wisdom given where we fear folly, and strength given where wisdom reigns.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“The Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.’” (Luke 10:41–42)

What I can do for Christ is little. What he did for me is so amazing—so matchless, so unspeakable, so glorious—that I ought to give that the major part of my attention. I may sometimes run with Martha to do what Christ needs of me, but I think I should more frequently sit with Mary to receive from Christ what I need from him. Our religion is not of a first-class order if it is altogether looking at our practice and not at the finished and perfect work of Christ.

Martha, Martha, Christ does not stand in need of you half as much as you do of him. It is proper for you to think how you may economize time to attend the house of prayer, and how you will bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and how you will save a little money to give to the poor or to Christ’s church. All these things are right. It is well you should do them. But remember, Christ did more for you.

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God’s plan for your life is to grow you to be more like his Son through the power and wisdom of his written Word — the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16). If that’s the case, we need to do everything we can to expose ourselves regularly, repeatedly, and deeply to the Word of God. We should never be satisfied with a quick skim.

One resource that has been particularly helpful to me recently is the Consider Him Scripture memorization booklet from Cemented Co. This booklet includes several exercises to help you gain a more firm understanding of Scripture by studying five key passages from Hebrews.

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