DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)
In the recollection of all that you have done for us your people, we are filled with amazement as well as with gratitude, that you should have loved us before the foundation of the world, that sovereign love should have pitched upon us poor unworthy ones, that you should so love us as to redeem us with the blood of Jesus and give the only Begotten to die for unworthy creatures like us, that you should love us notwithstanding our sins and transgressions, that you should love us despite the hardness of our hearts and the rebellion of our nature.
Amen.
VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)
“It is good to give thanks to the LORD…” (Psalm 92:1)
It is good ethically, for it is the Lord’s right; it is good emotionally, for it is pleasant to the heart; it is good practically, for it leads others to render the same homage. When duty and pleasure combine, who will be backward? To give thanks to God is but a small return for the great benefits which he daily gives us; yet as he by his Spirit calls it a good thing, we must not despise it, or neglect it. We thank men when they oblige us, how much more ought we to bless the Lord when he benefits us. Devout praise is always good, it is never out of season, never superfluous.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Know how you were forgiven — be freed from pride and despair.
Today we thanked God for the forgiveness of our sins — we are no longer guilty, but forgiven! Justified! Redeemed!
Remembering this truth — that we are forgiven of our sins, washed in the blood of Christ — should always fill us with gratitude (at Thanksgiving and all year round). We can know that we are forgiven forever, because it was purchased by Christ himself.
A great book to help you dive deeper into this topic of our forgiveness is Justification by Grace through Faith: Finding Freedom from Legalism, Lawlessness, Pride, and Despair by Brian Vickers. This book walks through the Bible’s teaching on justification and forgiveness in a way that is thoroughly biblical and intensely practical.
I hope you’ll grab a copy — I know it will bless and encourage you to give thanks to the Lord.