Category: Pray with Spurgeon

Pray with Spurgeon: When we are afraid, help us trust Jesus

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

There may be some here that are so tossed about mentally, that are so dismayed with inward temptation, so out of their wits by the assaults of Satan, that they know not what to do. Lord when they have no wit, give them enough wit to trust Christ; and when they can do nothing else, may they faint away upon the bosom of Eternal Love.

The Lord help his servants, when they are in extremity, to feel that now is the time for God to begin; and when they are driven over the very verge of hope, and the precipice of despair is before them, oh grant them grace to fall into the arms of Jesus, and there shall they find life from the dead.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Sons are indeed a heritage from the LORD, offspring, a reward.” (Psalm 127:3)

The Lord gives children, not as a penalty nor as a burden, but as a favor. They are a token for good if men know how to receive them and educate them. They are “doubtful blessings” only because we are doubtful persons. Where society is rightly ordered, children are regarded, not as an incumbrance, but as an inheritance; and they are received, not with regret, but as a reward.

Even with all the straits of limited incomes, our best possessions are our own dear offspring, for whom we bless God every day.

Parents, please check out my new project, GodCenteredFamily.org — a daily interactive Bible reading plan for parents and kids of any age. Click here to learn more and download a free sample.

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:

Pray with Spurgeon: Help anyone who doubts believe in Jesus now

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Lord, we ask you to help us all look to Jesus Christ alone. If any backsliders here are questioning whether they ever did believe in Jesus, may they leave that question alone and believe in him now. May they be content to let the past go by the wall, and once for all come, if they never did come, and embrace the Savior whom you, great God, have set forth as all-sufficient to save.

Let Peter weep bitterly, but let him come to his Master again. Oh, let the most wandering, cry to you; and may they look to your holy temple; and as they look, let the eternal life stream into them again, by the energy of the Eternal Spirit; and may they feel that whatever may have been the past, they are restored like prodigal children to a feast of love, restored forever to the Father’s house.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Now his older son was in the field; as he came near the house, he heard music and dancing…. Then he became angry and didn’t want to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him.” (Luke 15:25, 28)

I never know which to admire more—the love of the father in going to meet the returning prodigal or in going out to talk with this coldhearted elder brother. He was a son, but he had not the true spirit of his father. He had fallen into a wrong state of mind—just like certain Christians I know who have little sympathy with those who have been great sinners. They seem not to want to see such people as these brought to the Savior. Yet they themselves were no better than others by nature, though grace has done much in restraining them from the sin into which others have fallen, and it was wrong for them to talk as if they were sheer legalists, as this Pharisaic elder brother did.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Teach your children the truth (or the world will teach them lies)

Parents, our most important task is teaching our children the truth about who God is and what he has done.

God has called you and equipped you to disciple your children, to train them in the fear and instruction of the Lord.

The God-given solution to keep your children from falling prey to the sinful influences around them is simple: daily exposure to God’s Word.

I’ve created a new resource to help you do that — to open the Bible with your kids in a fruitful, fun, engaging way — every day.

GodCenteredFamily.org is a daily interactive Bible reading plan for parents and kids of any age. I hope it will be a blessing to your family.

You can learn more and download a free sample at GodCenteredFamily.org.

Pray with Spurgeon: We are completely forgiven by Jesus

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Oh, this morning let your people feel that there is now no condemnation to them. Let them feel the completeness of the washing Christ has given, the blessed fullness of the righteousness which Christ has imputed, the eternal vitality of that life with which Christ has endowed us, the indissoluble character of that union by which we are knit to Christ by ties that never can be broken.

May we today rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh; and do write upon our hearts these blessed words, “filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19), and may we know it is so; that we have all that we can hold; and may we be praying to be enlarged, that we may take in even more of Christ than we have as yet received; for he is all ours, altogether ours, and ours world without end.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Start a youth out on his way; even when he grows old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)

Have you ever heard of a man who said he did not teach his children the ways of God because he thought they were so young that it was very wrong to prejudice them, and he would rather leave them to choose their own religion when they grew older? One of his boys broke his arm, and while the surgeon was setting it the boy was swearing all the time. The good doctor said, “I told you what would happen. You were afraid to prejudice your boy in the right way, but the devil had no such qualms. He has prejudiced him the other way, and pretty strongly too.”

It is our duty to prejudice our field in favor of corn, or it will soon be covered with thistles. Cultivate a child’s heart for good, or it will go wrong by itself, for it is already depraved by nature. If only we were wise enough to think of this, and leave no little one to become a prey to the destroyer.

Parents, please check out my new project, GodCenteredFamily.org — a daily interactive Bible reading plan for parents and kids of any age. Click here to learn more and download a free sample.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

How does God’s unfailing love allow suffering and evil?

Today, we praised God for his gracious, merciful, unending, never changing love in Christ. For some of us, this kind of prayer is challenging to pray. Our experience tries to drown out the truth of Scripture. Surely a God who allows so much suffering cannot really be infinitely loving?

Grappling with questions like “If God is love why do bad things happen?” can increase your amazement at the wonders of God’s love. And so wrestling through those questions is important.

One great resource for helping you tackle those questions is The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God by D.A. Carson. This short book explains God’s love in a thoroughly biblical way that will leave you amazed at God’s grace and more eager to love others.

I hope you’ll grab a copy and read it this summer.

Buy The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God:

Pray with Spurgeon: The truth of God is worth living and dying for

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

God, set up your eternal throne in our hearts. Help us love you and you alone. We do pray this with our whole hearts; and assist us, we pray, most blessed Redeemer, to show forth your praises in our lives. Sanctify us in our households. May we go in and out before your showing the name and nature of Christ.

Help us in our business, that in all we do among our fellow men we may act as Christ would have us act. Strengthen us in secret; there may we be mighty in prayer. Guard us in public, that neither in act nor word we may slip away from Thee

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“My son, keep your father’s command, and don’t reject your mother’s teaching. Always bind them to your heart; tie them around your neck.” (Proverbs 6:20–21)

Solomon tells us to bind the teachings of our parents to our hearts, for they are worthy of loving adherence. Show that you love these things by binding them upon your heart.

The heart is the vital point; let godliness lie there, love the things of God. If we could take young men and women and make them professedly religious without their truly loving godliness, that would be simply to make them hypocrites, which is not what we desire. We do not want you to say that you believe what you do not believe, or that you rejoice in what you do not rejoice in.

But our prayer—and oh that it might be your prayer too!—is that you may be helped to bind these things about your heart. They are worth living for, they are worth dying for, they are worth more than all the world besides; the immortal principles of the divine life which comes from the death of Christ. “Bind them continually upon thine heart.”

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Introducing GodCenteredFamily.org

Today, we prayed for our households, asking that God would help us model godliness to everyone in them. And we saw in God’s Word, that our goal for our parenting is that our children would love God with all of their hearts.

Training children to follow Christ wasn’t just a talking point for Spurgeon, it was a huge lifelong passion for him, starting with his own children.

For Spurgeon, training his children to know Scripture and love God centered on a daily habit of family worship. Despite his busy schedule and the demands of ministry, he gathered his wife and children every day at 6 p.m., to read the Bible, pray, and sing together.

I want to help YOUR family do that today — have a daily time of family worship.

And that’s why I’m excited to tell you about a new project that I’m thrilled to be a part of. It’s called GodCenteredFamily.org.

We’re creating a daily interactive Bible reading plan for parents to use with kids of any age.

I am so excited about this resource and cannot wait to see how God uses it for his glory in your family.

You can learn more and download a free sample at GodCenteredFamily.org

Pray with Spurgeon: I can never be saved by works.

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

We again declare that all our hope is centered in the atoning Sacrifice, and in the risen Savior, who has gone into the glory as the testimony of our justification, and of our acceptance in him.

Oh, dear Savior, if in the course of years we have tried to add anything to the one foundation, if unconsciously we are relying now upon our knowledge, our experience, our Christian effort, we desire to clear away all these heap of rags and get down on the foundation again. None but Jesus! None but Jesus! Our soul rests in none but Jesus; and we hate and loathe, with our inmost nature, the very idea of adding anything to what he has finished, or attempting to complete what is perfect in him.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift.” (Ephesians 2:8)

For salvation to be complete, it must be by free favor. The saints, when they come to die, never conclude their lives by hoping in their good works. Those who have lived the most holy and useful lives invariably look to free grace in their final moments. If this be the case in our last moments, when the conflict is almost over, much more ought we to feel it to be so while we are in the thick of the fight.

If a man be completely saved in this present time of warfare, how can it be except by grace. While he has to mourn over sin that dwells in him, while he has to confess innumerable shortcomings and transgressions, while sin is mixed with all he does, how can he believe that he is completely saved except it be by the free favor of God?

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Know (and enjoy) the God who gives all grace

Today we prayed that God would remove all of our confidence in ourselves and rest only in the free grace that he gives through his Son Jesus Christ. This beautiful salvation by grace alone is a work of the Triune God alone. We don’t play a part, but each member of the Trinity does.

An excellent book for growing to enjoy the glorious God who gives grace is Experiencing the Trinity: The Grace of God for the People of God by Joe Thorn. This book is fifty, very short devotionals, each covering one aspect of God’s character and salvation. The book is divided into three sections: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, with each devotional reflecting on a different aspect of that person’s glory.

This daily devotional is a breath of fresh air — add it to your daily reading and you will grow your knowledge of God and your love for God. I hope you’ll grab a copy today.

Buy Experiencing the Trinity:

Pray with Spurgeon: The Risen Savior: My Only Hope

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Lord, we begin again this morning by looking unto Jesus Christ anew—whatever may be our sin, whatever your pure and holy eye can see amiss in us, which we cannot see: we desire to come to Jesus as sinners, guilty, lost, ruined by nature, and again to give the faith look, and to behold him hanging on the cross for us.

You know with what heartiness and depths of truthfulness, we can say, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.” We again declare that all our hope is centered in the atoning Sacrifice, and in the risen Savior, who has gone into the glory as the testimony of our justification, and of our acceptance in him.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“When the Counselor comes, the one I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me.” (John 15:26)

By this mark you may know whether that which has been taught you is of the Spirit of God. If it does not testify of Christ, if he is not the head and front of it all, there is nothing in it for you to accept. If any man comes to you with what he calls a revelation, if it is not all concerning Christ, by this shall you judge it; it is not of the Spirit of God if it does not testify of Christ.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

What’s so amazing about grace?

Today, we prayed, confessing that our only hope is in Jesus and his resurrection. And, as we saw in God’s Word, we need Jesus, not any other message.

We really do need to re-ground ourselves in the stunning message of God’s glorious goodness and amazing grace every day. This will keep us humble as we remember that Jesus’ resurrection (not our own goodness) is our only hope.

One book that has been so incredible helpful to me in this area, helping me cultivate enjoyment of God’s grace is By Grace Alone: How the Grace of God Amazes Me by Sinclair Ferguson. This book is a great devotional, with each chapter focusing on a different aspect of God’s amazing grace.

I can’t think of a better topic to study and consider this summer than God’s amazing grace. You will walk away from this book singing with joy at the wonders of God’s grace. I hope you’ll buy a copy today.

Buy By Grace Alone:

Pray with Spurgeon: Jesus is alive. There is nothing left to do.

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Our Father, we wish this morning to come to you anew in Christ Jesus. Many of us can look back to the happy moment when first we saw the law fulfilled in Christ, wrath appeased, death destroyed, sin forgiven, and our souls saved. Oh it was a happy morning—a blessed time. Never did the sun seem to shine so brightly as then, when we beheld the Sun of Righteousness, and basked in his light.

Many days have passed since then with some of us, and every day we have had proofs of the faithfulness of God to the gospel of his Son. We have proved the power of Jesus’ blood for daily cleansing; we have proved the power of his Divine Spirit for daily teaching, guidance, and sanctification; and now we want no other rock to build upon, than that which we have built upon; we desire no other hope, nor even to dream of any other, but that hope which you have set before us in the gospel, to which hope we have fled for refuge, and which hope we still have, as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and playfully jump like calves from the stall.” (Malachi 4:2)

Child of God in the dark, in prison, ungrowing and unhappy, what a promise is here for you! “The Sun of righteousness shall arise.” His rising is to do it all, there is nothing for you to do, no works for you to perform in order to get the needed blessing.

As soon as ever this sun is up and Christ begins to shine upon his people, they enjoy a clear light. They were in the dark before, but they are in the light now. The Sun of righteousness, when it rises on those that fear the Lord, gives them healing.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Teach your children that Christ has come to make all things new

Today we prayed that God would remind us and refresh us with the good news that Christ came to save and make all things new.

A great resource for sharing this good news with your kids is The Biggest Story: How the Snake Crusher Brings Us Back to the Garden by Kevin DeYoung. This book tells the grand, overarching story of the Bible in a way that will leave you (and your kids) eagerly longing for Christ to come back.

The story is beautifully told and is accessible for the youngest, but mature enough for older kids as well. And the illustrations are incredible — they are absolutely beautiful and full of biblical symbolism. Don’t be surprised when you find yourself pulling it out after the kids are in bed to pour over the illustrations.

This is one of my family’s favorite books. I hope it will be blessing to your family as well.

Buy The Biggest Story:

Pray with Spurgeon: God, you know my pain

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Now, this morning, we would bring before you all your saints, and ask you to attend to their trials and troubles. Some we know here, are afflicted in person; others are afflicted in their dear friends; some are afflicted in their temporal estate, and are brought into sore distress. Lord, we do not know the trials of all your people, but you do; for you are the Head, and the pains of all the members are centered in you. Help all your people even to the end.

Now, we ask for you to grant us the blessing of rest, which we have already sought; and let it come upon all the churches of our beloved country. May the Lord revive true and undefiled religion here.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“So she named the Lord who spoke to her: ‘You are El-roi’ for she said, ‘In this place, have I actually seen the one who sees me?’” (Genesis 16:13)

There is a God. God is not an impalpable somebody up there who has nothing to do with me, but there is God here, here, and he sees me. God deals with me—not far away, asleep, or blind—but God sees me.

Oh, it is a glorious thing when that conviction arises in the soul: “I am not alone, I am not friendless, after all. There is a God and a God who sees me and who takes such notice that he speaks to me.”

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Center Your Church on the Bible*

Today we prayed for a revival of true and undefiled religion in all of our churches. The power we need a faithful and fruitful ministry will not come by chasing after the latest cultural trends. No, we need a supernatural power from God himself. The good news: we don’t have to invent our ministry methods — they’ve been revealed to us clearly in the pages of Scripture.

Recently, I’ve been so blessed by an audiobook for pastors: Seven Key Principles for Effective Ministry: Nurturing Thriving Churches in a Postmodern Culture by David Harrell.

This book is packed with biblical truth and encouragement for ministry. It makes clear that ministry is uniquely challenging today, but God’s power to save is unchanged and unchanging.

Listening to the audiobook has been a much-needed realignment of my ministry around the things that matter most. It’s left me refreshed by God’s grace and reoriented on God’s Word.

Listen to a free sample of Seven Key Principles for Effective Ministry on Audible.

Pray with Spurgeon: Know God, and you will grow to be like him

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Oh Savior, make us like yourself; we wish not so much to do, as to be. If you will make us to be right, we shall do right. We have often to put a constraint upon ourselves to be right; but oh, we want to be like you, Jesus, so that we only have to act out ourselves to act out perfect holiness. We shall never rest until this is the case, until you have made us to be inwardly holy; and then words and actions must be holy as a matter of course.

Now, here we are, Lord, and we belong to you. Oh, it is because we are your own, that we have hope. You will make us worthy of you. Your possession of us is our hope of perfection. You wash our feet because we are your own. Oh how sweet is the mercy which first took us to its heart, and made us all its own, and now continues to deal tenderly with us that, being Christ’s own, we may have that of Christ within us which all may see, and which proves us to be the Lord’s.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

The knowledge of God is the most effective influence under heaven. Everything that we learn and know affects our character in some measure, even as the flesh of an animal tastes of its food. Every thought which crosses the mind affects it for the better or the worse, every glance is molding us, every wish fashions the character. A sight of God is the most wonderfully sanctifying influence that can be conceived of. Know God, and you will grow to be like him. Dear hearer, have you beheld this marvelous vision?

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

How God’s grace helps you grow

Today we prayed that God would help us see his face and set us. free from sin. We ask God to help us grow in holiness, because we know that God’s grace doesn’t just save us from sin, it also gives us the power that we need to slay sin. The work of growing in godliness is a work of cooperation between us and God’s grace.

One of my all-time favorite books is The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges. This book explains how God’s grace empowers Christians to slay sin and grow in godliness. It is one of the helpful, practical, and encouraging books that I have ever read! If you want to grow in godliness, start with The Discipline of Grace.

Reading The Discipline of Grace will definitely help you grow in holiness. I hope you’ll grab a copy today.

Buy The Discipline of Grace:

Pray with Spurgeon: God, be patient with me

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Oh Lord and Master, you who did wash your disciples’ feet of old, still be very patient toward us, very condescending towards our provoking faults, and go on with us, we pray, until your great work shall be completed, and we shall be brethren of the firstborn, we shall be like him.

Gracious Master, we wish to conquer self in every respect; we desire to live for the glory of God and the good of our fellow men. We would have it true of us as of our Master, “He saved others, but he cannot save himself” (Matthew 27:42) Will you enable us, especially, to overcome the flesh with all its affections and lusts; may the flesh be kept under; let no appetite of any kind, of the grosser sort, prevail against our manhood, lest we be dishonored and unclean. And let not, even, the most refined power of the natural mind, be permitted to come so forward, as to mar the dominion of the Spirit of God within us.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“How joyful is a person whom the LORD does not charge with iniquity and in whose spirit is no deceit!” (Psalm 32:2)

He had a thousand iniquities; he transgressed in all sorts of ways. The Lord does not impute these things to him. He has set them down to the account of another, who has ventured to stand in the sinner’s stead, and be made sin in the sinner’s place, but to this man, this blessed man, God does not impute iniquity, and in his spirit there is no guile—he confesses his sin with honesty, he is pardoned with certainty, and in his spirit there is no cunning concealment.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

God is patient. It’s time to learn why.

Today we prayed that the God who redeemed us would continue to show patience to us. Friends, I have remarkably good news: the Christ who washed his disciples’ feet is still washing feet today. He is always a patient, loving redeemer.

One book that has reminded me afresh of the beauty and the freeness of God’s love is Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund. This book is an absolutely stunning picture of God’s grace to us in Christ. It will fill you up with confidence to know that God will always be patient, because that’s who he is.

I’ve been moved to tears several times while reading this book and seeing the stunningly beautiful and thoroughly biblical picture of Christ’s love for his people. The book is great reading for any sinning and suffering Christian (which is all of us!)

I hope you’ll grab a copy and read it this fall. I promise that you won’t regret it!

Buy Gentle and Lowly: