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.