DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)
Our Father, we dare to call you by that blessed name, for we feel the spirit of children. We have an earnest love for you, and an implicit trust in you; and we desire in all things to be obedient to your will, and to seek your honor. All our dependence is placed on you, since the day when you taught us to believe in Jesus Christ: and now, you are all in all to us, you are our fulness, and we lose ourselves and find ourselves completely in you.
We would come to you this morning by the way which you have appointed; and enabled by the Spirit whom you have given, we would speak with you. Father, we are always grieving if more or less we offend against your holy mind; and we grieve ourselves, to think that we should grieve you.
Amen.
VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)
“For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’” (Romans 8:15)
Oh the blessed state of heart to feel that now we are born into the family of God and that the choice word that no slave might ever pronounce may now be pronounced by us: “Abba!” It is a child’s word, such as a little child utters when he first opens his mouth to speak, and it runs the same both backwards and forwards: AB-BA. Oh to have a childlike spirit that in whatever state of heart I am, I may still be able to say, in the accents even of spiritual infancy, “Abba, Father!”
What better testimony can we have than that of these two witnesses, first of our own spirit and then of the Holy Spirit himself? This is not spoken concerning everybody. The doctrine of the universal fatherhood of God is a doctrine of the flesh, not of the Spirit. It is not taught anywhere in God’s Word. This is a fatherhood that relates only to those who are spiritual. We are born into it by the new birth and brought into it by an act of divine grace in adoption.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
A New Storybook Bible — Fill Your Kids with the Hope of Heaven*
I’m so excited about a new storybook Bible for kids of all ages — God With Us by Jeremy Pierre, illustrated by Cassandra Clark. This book is an incredible telling of 30 Bible stories that will leave kids of any age (and their parents) amazed at the greatness and goodness of God.
Unlike other storybook Bibles, God With Us focuses on the theme of God’s presence. It makes plain that the horrors of sin have separated us from God, but that, because of Jesus, we have hope to be with God forever.
There are 30 Bible stories, with stunning story-telling and captivating illustrations, told over the course of nearly 300 pages — all focused on telling one beautiful, hope-filled story about God dwelling with his people.
This book will fill your child’s heart with love for God and a desire to see him face-to-face.
(And the stories are so good, you’ll be blessed as well.)
I know that this book will be a blessing to your whole family — I hope you’ll pre-order a copy today.