DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)
Father, we now ask you to have pity upon us, your children; who have of late erred and strayed, even as we have done before. You have washed us. In that fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins, we have found perfect cleansing. But as the priests needed to wash their feet every day, so do we. Oh wash us clean again; and as before the judgment seat we are clean, so now before our Father’s face, let us, too, be clean.
O you who dwell in Zion, rid us of corruptions within. Drive out the Canaanites. Some of our besetting sins are like those that have chariots of iron; drive them out before us by the irresistible power of your grace, until the whole of my soul in its uttermost lengths shall belong unto God alone.
Amen.
VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)
“I have no greater joy than this: to hear that my children are walking in truth.” (3 John 4)
It is grievous to see how some professing Christian parents are satisfied as long as their children display cleverness in learning or sharpness in business, although they show no signs of a renewed nature. If they pass their exams with credit and promise to be well fitted for the world’s battle, their parents forget that a superior is calling, involving a higher crown, for which the child will need to be fitted by divine grace and armed with the whole armor of God. If our children lose the crown of life, it will be but a small consolation that they have won the laurels of literature or art.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Discover freedom from guilt and deeper joy in Christ
Today we prayed, lamenting our former life and celebrating the new life we have in Christ. As we think about who we were before we knew Christ, it can be easy for many of us to feel a constant sense of guilt from our past sins. And while it’s good to feel remorse over our sin, God has called us to live in freedom and joy with a clear conscience.
A great (and very short!) book to help you understand your conscience, repentance, and freedom from guilt and shame is The Art of Turning by Kevin DeYoung. This short book unpacks the “conscience” and encourages you to turn from Christ sin every day.
This book is so incredibly life-giving. If you read it, you will find freedom from guilt and increased desire to know Christ. I hope you’ll pick up a copy today.