Category: Pray with Spurgeon

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

O blessed Savior, it has pleased the Father that in you should all fullness dwell, and God forbid that we should ever think of adding to you, or going beyond you, for you are our All-in-All. O precious Christ, we take you over again today, and come with all our emptiness and sin, and folly and weakness, and spiritual death, just as we are, and cast ourselves on you, as man casts himself into the sea, not to up-bear himself, but to be upborne. So cast we ourselves into the sea of your fullness, to be upborne by your all the days we have to spend in this house of our banishment.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38–39)

Paul was persuaded of four things. First, that God loves us. Second, that God has shown his love to us by the gift of his Son Jesus Christ. Third, his divine love comes streaming down to us because we are in Christ and we are loved for his sake. Fourth, nothing can ever break the bond of love between God and those who are in his Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Who is the Holy Spirit, anyway?

Today’s prayer praised God the Son — Jesus Christ our Lord. We love God and are confident that he is Trinity. But sometimes we aren’t as comfortable understanding God the Holy Spirit.

This can be a confusing topic for many Christians, because we often aren’t so sure we know who the Holy Spirit is. He’s not a positive energy or divine force — he is God himself.

A great book to understand and apply the Bible’s teaching on who the Holy Spirit is (and what he does) is Rediscovering the Holy Spirit: God’s Perfecting Presence in Creation, Redemption, and Everyday Life by Michael Horton.

This book unpacks the Holy Spirit’s work throughout the Bible and in our lives today. It is thoroughly biblical and practical.

Knowing and loving the Holy Spirit is a crucial part of the Christian life. I know this book will be a helpful tool as you worship God the Holy Spirit — I hope you’ll grab a copy today.

Buy Rediscovering the Holy Spirit:

• Amazon (Paperback, Kindle, or audiobook editions)
• ChristianBook.com (Paperback, ebook, or audiobook editions)

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

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Oh it was a sweet day when you turned my way, my Lord, to meet me. Most blessed Lord Jesus, I praise you for the singular application of the gospel to my own case. Nothing else could have helped me. I was under too deep a sense of sin to be relieved by the doctrine of mere reformation. I was too far gone to be healed by any flattering unction that could be laid to their soul as to what I could do. But I found all in you, as indeed I do this morning.

Some of us have been acquainted with you these thirty years and more. A third of a century have some of us known you, and some for half a century have been living upon you in dependence upon your bounty. But we have never had a want that you could not supply. We never had a grief which you could not assuage, but we have not, even now, in prospect of death and the grave, any fear which you cannot put to rest.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“For I will create new heavens and a new earth; the past events will not be remembered or come to mind. Then be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I will create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight.” (Isaiah 65:17–18)

The work spoken of in the text has already begun among us. There is to be a literal new creation, but that new creation has already commenced. So I think that even now we ought to manifest a part of the joy. If we are called on to be glad and rejoice in the completion of the work, let us rejoice in the commencement of it as well. The Lord himself will rejoice. We who are in sympathy with him are exhorted and even commanded to be glad, so let us not be slack in this heavenly duty. People will never rejoice in God’s new work of creation while they are rejoicing in their own works and trusting in themselves and boasting their own merits. It is a sign of grace when a person is sick of self and is in harmony with God. People must stop rejoicing in what they can do and come to rejoice in what God has done and is doing. This shows that true change has occurred in someone’s life.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Finding peace in the Prince of Peace

Today we prayed, confessing that we have no fear that God is not able to put to rest. We believe this in our heads, but sometimes this kind of bold faith can be difficult to apply and live out in the midst of our broken, sin-cursed, fallen world. We desperately need the Prince of Peace to come and redeem us, to make his blessing known as far as the curse is found.

Life in this fallen world is full of many things to be afraid of, but recognizing the good presence of Christ with us gives us the power to choose faith over fear.

That’s the message of Fear and Faith: Finding the Peace Your Heart Craves by Trillia Newbell. In this book, Newbell addresses a variety of common fears, and shows how the truth of God’s Word and the power of the gospel can help us overcome those fears with faith.

This book will encourage you, boost your confidence in God, and help you walk with faith every day. I hope you’ll grab a copy today and read it today.

Buy Fear and Faith:

• Amazon (Paperback, Kindle, or audiobook editions)
• ChristianBook.com (Paperback, ebook, or audiobook editions)

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Oh that we might be willing to come to the Savior as people that want saving, to come to his blood to be washed, to come weak and feeble, to find strength in him, and nowhere else. You will not meet us on any other terms but these. The Pharisees you would not meet. You went away from them when they had heard about you, that you made and baptized disciples: then you avoided them, for you had not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24)

Now, the more holy a man gets the more he cries in this fashion. While he is low down in the scale, he puts up with sin, and he is uneasy, but when he gets to see Christ and get somewhat like him, the more nearly he approximates to the image of his Master, the more the presence of the least sinful thought is horrifying to him. He would, if he could, never look on sin again—never have the slightest inclination to it, but he finds his heart getting abroad and wandering when he would tether it down, if he could, to the cross and crucify it there. And so the more happy he is in Christ the more desperately does he cry against the wretchedness of being touched with sin, even in the least degree.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Hope for Wives Whose Husbands are Stuck in Sexual Sin*

Our sin is almost never contained — it always causes massive pain for ourselves and others. And sexual sin is no different.

A husband’s sexual sin can be DEVASTATING for a wife. As a pastor, I’ve seen this firsthand. And yet, the hope of the gospel can even shine light on the deep suffering caused by a spouse’s sexual sin.

Jesus and Your Unwanted Journey by Ellen Mary Dykas is a new Bible study for women navigating the aftermath of their husbands’ sexual betrayal. 

This Bible study will help you think through their suffering in an honest, biblical way. Lord willing, you’ll walk away from this study with a clear understanding of yourself, your husband’s sin, God’s grace, and the path forward.

Thanks to the great people at HarvestUSA, this Bible study is available FOR FREE. I hope you’ll download it now and get started soon.

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

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

We thank you, O blessed Savior, that you are such a wonderful lover of the sons of men; so willing to go out of your way after a poor sinner as to be under a compulsion to go the way through Samaria where a guilty one shall come and speak with you, and you would speak with her. We do admire your blessed condescension in making your first convert to be one who had so foully fallen and in winning that one heart, and thereby winning so many more. Far be it from us ever to come to you in the filthy rags of our own righteousness. They are worse than nothing.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment; all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.” (Isaiah 64:6)

Oh, how precious the blood of Christ to such hearts as ours! How priceless a gift is his perfect righteousness! And how bright the hope of perfect holiness hereafter! Even now, though sin dwells in us, its power is broken. It has no dominion; it is a broken-backed snake; we are in bitter conflict with it, but it is with a vanquished foe that we have to deal. Yet a little while and we shall enter victoriously into the city where nothing defiles.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

A solidly-biblical path to grow in godliness*

Christians don’t fight sin or grow in godliness by mere force-of-will. Our path to growing starts by acknowledging our own powerlessness — we need God himself to change us.

And that’s because none of our actions are isolated — they come from our hearts, which are fed and nourished by many different influences.

Recently, I’ve been really enjoying Discovery, which is a Bible study curriculum for men struggling with sexual impurity. The study is so powerful because it RECOGNIZES that sin is complicated, our actions come from our hearts, and the only path to true and lasting change is NOT to start with behaviors (how to stop sinning/start doing the right thing), but to address our hearts.

The Discovery Bible study will help you understand and address your own heart.

And, by God’s grace and the kindness of HarvestUSA (the ministry that produced this study), the entire curriculum is available for free. I hope you will check it out and use it to grow and help others too.

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

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

O you who dwells in the highest heavens, yet also dwells in lowly hearts, make us lowly; set us free from all wrath, and pride, and foul desire, and groveling worldliness. Make us conscious of sin; trembling at you but rejoicing in your mercy; hoping in your salvation; triumphing in your love. Even so, our hearts become a temple, and God, even God, that fills all things, shall come and fill us also, with all the fullness of God.

O God, we cannot live without you. You have spoiled us for the world. We cannot now be content with it; and you have spoiled us for all things short of Jesus. We believe in nothing else but in Jesus, and in all else that we do, we go back with intense delight to the preaching and the hearing of the gospel. There is none like it.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:7)

Let us not be mistaken: God never gave us faith to play with. Faith is a sword. But it was not made to exhibit upon a parade ground. It was meant to cut and wound and slay. Whoever has it may expect, between here and heaven, to learn what battle means. God has made nothing in vain; he especially makes nothing in the spiritual kingdom in vain. He made faith with the intent that it should be used to the utmost and exercised to the full. We must expect trial because trial is the element of faith. Faith without trial is like a diamond uncut, the brilliance of which has never been seen. A fish without water or a bird without air is faith without trial. We may surely expect that our faith will be tested.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Find freedom by fearing God.

Today’s prayer did such a great job at balancing the wonder and greatness of God, along with his love and mercy. I was reminded of a book I read last year that has been a HUGE blessing to me.

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.

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.

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. When we encounter a grace that’s so stunning and scandalous, fear and trembling is the only proper response!

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:

• Amazon (Hardback, Kindle, or audiobook editions)
• ChristianBook.com (Hardback or ebook editions)

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

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

We are bound at this time to remember our country, and we do. O God, in your great wisdom, step into this time of anxiety and dread. Oh that peace may come. By your great mercy, teach our senators wisdom. We have already prayed before you that justice might be executed upon those who have committed cruel murder;  but we do pray that no policy of vengeance may be followed by us, that we may, in a Christian spirit, seek to overcome evil with good. We are afraid that our senators have not grace enough to do it, but we pray that they may have it, and that still firmly but yet not vindictively the ship of state may be steered through these troubled waters and brought at last to a peaceful haven.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“If I had decided to say these things aloud, I would have betrayed your people.” (Psalm 73:15)

Some people have made up a kind of proverb like this: “If you think it, you may as well speak it.” But it is not so. Bad thoughts should never be spoken. If a man has evil thoughts but does not utter them, the mischief will not be so great as if he were to make them known to others.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Two FREE Purity Bible Studies for Men and Women*

Pornography and other forms of sexual immorality run RAMPANT in our world today. Even within the church, men and women are held captive by the lure of pornography.

There are some great tools available to limit your access to pornography — but what we really need to do is have our hearts purified.

Two great resources to help you along this battle are available now from HarvestUSA:

• “Discovery” is a Bible study for men stuck in sexual sin. It is gospel-centered and will help you see and address the root of your sin.
• “Jesus and Your Unwanted Journey” is a study for wives of men who are stuck in sexual sin. It will help you walk through this difficult season with compassion, honestly, and biblical truth.

These great resources are available for FREE, so I hope you’ll download them and get started today.

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

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Lord, we pray another prayer, which is this: that our friends and family who do not know the believer’s joy, may learn it today. Oh that this day may be as the beginning of days. Today, may some when they hear of the plenitude of blessing which you give to your people be made to long to be among that happy number.

Create, we ask you, a soul thirst in those who are self-satisfied. Breed a sharp hunger in the hearts of those who have been content with the good things of time and sense. May they begin to long after something more enduring, more satisfying; and when you have set them longing, reveal Christ Jesus to them, and let them see how he can fill the soul with peace and joy.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart’s desires.” (Psalm 37:4)

The religion of most people consists in abstaining from sins they secretly love. Negative godliness is common; it is supposed by most that our religion consists in things we must not do rather than in pleasures we may enjoy. And they suppose us to be a crabby, miserable bunch, who undoubtedly make up for denying ourselves in public by some private indulgence.

Now it is true that religion is self-denial; it is equally true that it is not self-denial. Christians have two selves. There is the old self, and there they do deny the flesh with its affections and lusts; but there is a new self, a newborn spirit, the new man in Christ Jesus. Our religion does not consist in any self-denial there. No, let it have the full swing of its wishes and desires, for all it can wish for, all it can pant after, all it can long to enjoy.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

God hears your prayers, not because you’re good enough (but because Jesus is)

Today we prayed, knowing that our only hope in prayer is that we would be covered in the righteousness of Christ. This is our only hope with which to approach God. This should give us great hope and confidence as we pray — we do not come in our own name, but in the mighty name of Jesus!

A great, refreshing book that has really helped me learn this lesson is A Praying Life by Paul Miller. This book makes clear that our only hope of acceptable prayers is the blood of Jesus.

A Praying Life is a great, encouraging book on Christian prayer. Reading this book has cultivated Scripture-saturated prayers of childlike faith in my life. Miller describes prayer in a way that is thoroughly biblical and incredible desirable.

I hope A Praying Life will help you deepen your prayer life this fall.

Buy A Praying Life:

• Amazon (Paperback, Kindle, or Audiobook editions)
• ChristianBook.com (Paperback or Ebook editions)

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

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Lord, deal tenderly with your people. You are the blessed Shepherd! We have it concerning you that you “gather the lambs in your arms” and that you “gently lead those that are nursing” (Isaiah 40:11). Deal tenderly with them, and with all the flock; we pray that every child of yours may get a sweet refreshment. May there not be one of us that shall be without a smile for the Father’s face, and a kind gentle word dropped into our spirit by the Holy Spirit that shall sink all our fears and send us away happy.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“He protects his flock like a shepherd; he gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them in the fold of his garment. He gently leads those that are nursing.” (Isaiah 40:11)

Jesus our Savior is here described as the Lord God. Here is divinity: not the Lord, the man of war, but the Lord, the shepherd of Israel. Here is the fire of deity, but its gentle, warming influence is felt, and the consuming force is veiled. Greatness connected to gentleness and power linked with affection now stand before us. Love and mercy are joined with omnipotence and wisdom. Such is our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the conquering captain of salvation, but he is gentle and lowly of heart as well.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

A Bedtime Blessing for Children

Whether your children are afraid of the dark or not, we should always encourage our children to trust God at bedtime (and at all times!). Why Do We Say Good Night? by Champ Thornton is a great God-glorifying book for kids.

The book, packed full with simple rhymes, beautiful illustrations, and even more beautiful gospel-centered theology, tells the story of a little girl who is a little scared to be left alone at night. Her mother offers her the good news that our great God, the one who made the night, is near, in control, and good.

This book is one of the favorites of our family. There have been seasons when we’ve read it every night before bedtime, and my wife and I would even get it out again after bedtime to pour over the beautiful illustrations and think more about the incredible message it offers.

Why Do We Say Good Night? is a fantastic book that will help your kids trust God. I hope you will grab a copy today.

Buy Why Do We Say Good Night?:

• Amazon (Hardback edition)
• ChristianBook.com (Hardback edition)

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Now Lord, if there be any cause of anxiety upon the heart of any of your servants so that they cannot praise you upon the high-sounding cymbals, but feel bound to sit down in the dust, hear their complaints. Does an unforgiven sin lie there upon the conscience of any child of yours? Then help your dear child to confess it with his head in his Father’s bosom, and to receive full absolution. May you say, “Daughter, your sins are forgiven. Son, go in peace, your sins are forgiven.” Or, is it that we are mourning under some great grief, which perhaps has not yet happened, but the shadow of which is upon us? Give your servants great patience.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“… but he brought us from there in order to lead us in and give us the land that he swore to our ancestors.” (Deuteronomy 6:23)

We were in the land of darkness and in the valley of the shadow of death. We were fond of sin—we were slaves to it, and we had no wish or will to escape from it. But with an everlasting love God tore the heavens and in majesty came down. He brought us out and he will bring us in. If the Lord does not bring us into glory, then the precious blood of Christ has been shed in vain, and the Holy Spirit has operated on our hearts in vain. If God does not finish his work on us and in us, then people and devils will say that he began to build, but he could not finish.

Let us, therefore, trust in him, and say, “He will bring us in.” Across the Jordan we will go with our Joshua, the Lord Jesus, at our head; and we will take our possession, everyone of us, in that glorious land and stand in that day, as surely as he has brought us out.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Sexual sin CAN be defeated (but only in Christ!)*

We could never find true freedom from sexual impurity unless God himself changes our hearts and helps us to grow.

If you’re looking for a guide to help you and others uproot sexual sin and pursue purity from the inside-out, check out Discovery from HarvestUSA. This is an INCREDIBLE Bible study curricula to help men fight sexual sin.

Paul Tripp (speaker/author of the New Morning Mercies devotional) describes this resource so well: “I love this curriculum, and I will recommend it often…. It very importantly and helpfully roots change in our new identity and potential in Christ, not just in acknowledging the wrong thoughts and desires of the heart.”
Sexual sin is serious. We can’t afford to mess around with it — we need to take serious action to grow. I hope you’ll download Discovery and get started today.

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

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

We bless you that we can never lose our portion. Time cannot impair it, death cannot take it from us or take us away from it. Rather, we expect death, which would destroy all mortal things, to bring us nearer to the God we love, and in our disembodied state we shall behold you more clearly than we do now. Though the worm devour this body, yet in our flesh we shall see God, whom our eyes shall see for themselves and not another. O God, we know not how to express our delight in you. You are the happy God, and you are the happy-making God.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you. In the presence of everyone you have acted for those who take refuge in you.” (Psalm 31:19)

 Is it not singular to find such a joyful sentence in connection with so much sorrow? Truly the life of faith is a miracle. When faith led David to his God, she set him singing at once. He does not tell us how great was God’s goodness, for he could not; there are no measures which can set forth the immeasurable goodness of the Lord, who is goodness itself. Holy amazement uses interjections where adjectives utterly fail. Notes of exclamation suit us when words of explanation are of no avail. If we cannot measure we can marvel; and though we may not calculate with accuracy, we can adore with fervency.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Trust the God who is able to keep you until the end

Today we prayed that God would preserve us, even as we suffer. As we pray for God to strengthen our faith, we can also fill our minds with his Word as a means to boost our faith.

A great book on growing your faith in God is Trusting God by Jerry Bridges. This book focuses on God’s sovereignty, his good control over all things, and shows that we really can trust God in any circumstance. This book is full of reasons to trust God and applies those reasons to the trials in our lives that make it particularly hard to trust God.

This book will strengthen your faith and confidence in our great God — I hope you’ll grab a copy today.

Buy Trusting God:

• Amazon (Paperback, Kindle, or audiobook edition)
• ChristianBook.com (Paperback or ebook edition)