DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)
Lord, will you be pleased to heal us of any wounds that we have received in the great conflict. You know that during the week some of us have been in the thick of the battle, and manifold temptations have gathered about us. If we have gathered any defilement, be pleased to put it away. If in conversation with the world we have mired or dusted our feet, wash them, blessed Master, this morning, that we may be clean everywhere.
If our faith has suffered any damage, or our hope is not so bright as it was, or if our love to you is not as fervent as at one time it was; if the soul be sinking under the pressure of the fight in any degree, oh you, whose every word is music, whose every promise is balm, whose every touch is life, draw near to the weary warrior now, and refresh us, that we may rise again to the conflict, and never tire until the last enemy shall be beneath our feet, as beneath our Master’s feet.
Amen.
VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)
“Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 2:3)
The soldier is full often a suffering man. There are wounds, there are toils, there are frequent lyings in the hospitals, there may be ghastly cuts which let the soul out with the blood. Such the Christian soldier must be, ready to suffer, enduring hardness, not looking for pleasure of a worldly kind in this life, but counting it his pleasure to renounce his pleasure for Christ’s sake.
The true soldier is an ambitious being. He pants for honor, seeks for glory. On the field of strife he gathers his laurels, and amidst a thousand dangers he reaps renown. The Christian is fired by higher ambitions than earthly warrior ever knew. He sees a crown that can never fade; he loves a King who best of all is worthy to be served; he has a motive within him which moves him to the noblest deeds, a divine spirit impelling him to the most self-sacrificing actions. Thus you see the Christian is a soldier, and it is one of the main things in Christian life, to contend earnestly for the faith, and to fight valorously against sin.
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