DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)
Through the rebellion of our flesh we cannot delight ourselves in your ways, because they are hard and afflictive apparently; yet we do delight in you, and we will at all times rest our souls in the excellence and goodness and lovingkindness of the Most High.
As you have revealed yourself in Christ Jesus, you have now become to your people the object of inexpressible delight. You have bidden us to delight in you, promising to give us the desire of our hearts. We trust we can, many of us, truly say that you are our exceeding joy; the thought of God does bring exceeding pleasure to our soul. Our soul exults in her God: He is our God and we will extol him, he is our fathers’ God and we will glorify him (Exodus 15:2).
Amen.
VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)
“The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.” (Exodus 15:2)
The heart is prompted by gratitude to think of doing something for God. It thinks of preparing him a habitation; but what habitation shall we prepare for him whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain? All that we can possibly do is too little for the greatness of his grace and his glory.
“You did well that it was in your heart,” said the Lord to David, though he might not prepare God a habitation. It is well that it is in our heart today to do some little thing for the glory of God. As an old Puritan says, we give for love-tokens a cracked sixpence, or a flower that soon fades. It is accepted as a love-token, not for its intrinsic value, but as an emblem of what our heart feels, and would do if it could. Even so it is with the Lord and the service his people seek to render to him. He takes our trifles, and makes much of them.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Find freedom by fearing God.
The fear of God is a troubling and confusing phrase for many. We know that it appears all over Scripture, but we don’t know what it means. We know it means more than basic “respect” or “reverence.” But we also don’t feel right running scared from our loving Father.
A new book, Rejoice and Tremble: The Surprising Good News of the Fear of the Lord by Michael Reeves is a beautifully helpful guide to understanding and applying the fear of the Lord.
Reeves shows that the fear of the Lord is not a negative fleeing from God, but a wonder-filled joy in God and all that he is. The fear of God is the path to freedom from all anxiety. Reading this book filled my heart with joy and love for the God who must be feared, and I know that it will do the same for you.