DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)
Our Father, we have many petitions to put up to you this morning. We pray that you would hear them. We are sometimes afraid that we your people are growing cold in heart. You have brought summer weather upon our bodies, and you make the whole earth to rejoice in the light of the sun; but how often is there winter within while there is summer without. We are afraid that too often we come up to the house of prayer without prayer, and go away from it, in consequence without a blessing. How little heart is there in our praise! How little true earnestness in our prayers!
At this hour, Lord, inspire the heart of every child of yours to true prayer. Help us to feel the weight of men’s souls. May the wondrous value of a soul be opened up to our understanding; may the preciousness of a soul be laid upon our hearts, and may we pray, every one of us, as if we have never prayed before, and if we have had power with you, may we have a special power now, while silently we are pleading. God have mercy upon us, and have mercy upon sinners this day.
Amen.
VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)
“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12)
No prayer of mortal men could be complete without confession of sin. Prayer which does not seek for pardon will fail, as the Pharisee’s prayer did. Let proud men boast as they please, those who are in Christ’s kingdom will always pray, “Forgive us our debts.” Our Lord knew that we should always have debts to own, and therefore would always need to cry, “Forgive!” This is the prayer of men whom the Judge has absolved because of their faith in the Great Sacrifice; for now to their Father they come for free forgiveness, as children.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
God hears your prayers, not because you’re good enough (but because Jesus is)
Today we prayed, confessing the unworthiness of our prayers. And today’s verse of the day shows us that our only hope in prayer is that we would be covered in the righteousness of Christ. This is our only hope with which to approach God. This should give us great hope and confidence as we pray — we do not come in our own name, but in the mighty name of Jesus!
A great, refreshing book that has really helped me learn this lesson is A Praying Life by Paul Miller. This book makes clear that our only hope of acceptable prayers is the blood of Jesus.
A Praying Life is a great, encouraging book on Christian prayer. Reading this book has cultivated Scripture-saturated prayers of childlike faith in my life. Miller describes prayer in a way that is thoroughly biblical and incredible desirable.
I know A Praying Life will help you deepen your prayer life — I hope you’ll buy a copy today.