DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)
Remember some present who have lately been bereaved. They lately had the sentence of death in themselves, by reason of sore disease of body. Help, strengthen, comfort, deliver.
The widow and the fatherless are always in your care. Look, most tender and compassionate Lord, upon all such as are in any trouble of mind, or body, or estate; and let the rich comforts of the Comforter himself be dispensed to them.
Amen.
VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3)
Our best friend is not dead. Our great patron and helper, our omnipotent Savior, is not lying in the tomb today. He lives; He ever lives. Now, observe the connection between a risen Savior and our living hope. Jesus Christ died, not in appearance, but in reality. Then, at the end of the appointed time, the same Savior who was laid in the tomb rose from the dead, not in secrecy, but before the Roman guards who watched the sepulcher.
So then, the resurrection of Jesus is virtually my resurrection. If he were dead still, then I might fear that I, dying, should die. But he, having died, arose again in due season and lives. Therefore I, dying, shall also rise and live, for as Jesus is so must I be.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Read Spurgeon’s hope-filled final message
Today’s prayer asked God for hope in the face of death, comfort as we mourn those we have lost. This is a fitting prayer for this week, because Monday was the anniversary of Spurgeon’s own death.
Shortly before his death, Spurgeon delivered a message titled The Greatest Fight in the World, in which he expressed his confidence in God’s Word alone for the Christian life and the Christian ministry.
I’ve recently been reading The Greatest Fight and have been so encouraged by Spurgeon’s confidence in God — the kind of confidence that perseveres, even in the face of death.
Today, 130 years after his death, Spurgeon’s final message can encourage us to stay faithful to God’s Word as we trust in Christ alone to keep us to the end. I know that it will encourage you, so I hope you’ll grab a copy.