DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)
Our gracious God and Father, since you have taught us to hate our wandering thoughts and sins, will you not give us grace to overcome them? Oh that we could be what we want to be! We are well aware that even our model which we have painted in our own mind is not a perfect one, for we have not fully understood the perfection of the Lord Jesus, so as to set him before us as our example. We do complain, gracious God, that even in trying to draw the picture of that example we fail, and that our thought makes an imperfect Christ out of him who is altogether matchless. Yet, even to that poor ideal of Christ we never have as yet attained. Oh that we could reach it! Oh that we could be like Christ!
Amen.
VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)
“A generous person will be enriched, and the one who gives a drink of water will receive water.” (Proverbs 11:25)
We are here taught the great lesson, that to get, we must give; that to accumulate, we must scatter; that to make ourselves happy, we must make others happy; and that in order to become spiritually vigorous, we must seek the spiritual good of others. In watering others, we are ourselves watered.
We have latent talents and dormant faculties, which are brought to light by exercise. Our strength for labor is hidden even from ourselves, until we venture forth to fight the Lord’s battles, or to climb the mountains of difficulty. We do not know what tender sympathies we possess until we try to dry the widow’s tears, and soothe the orphan’s grief. We often find in attempting to teach others, that we gain instruction for ourselves.
Parents — Interested in reading Proverbs with your children? Last month, I put out a new family devotional that walks kids of all ages through Proverbs. Subscribe to God Centered Family and get instant access to the Proverbs family devotional and 19 other books of the Bible.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
See Jesus for all the Wonder He Is
I LOVE the way Spurgeon described our floundering attempts at knowing the fullness of Christ Christ in today’s prayer: “our thought makes an imperfect Christ out of him who is altogether matchless.”
Christ really is altogether matchless. He is worthy of endless praise. He is not merely a great man — he is God himself.
Everyone reading this newsletter probably knows and accepts that. But do you know what those words really mean?
A great book for furthering your eternal plunge into the endless beauty of Christ is Jesus in Trinitarian Perspective, edited by Fred Sanders and Klaus Issler. This book will help you really think critically, biblically, and theologically about who Jesus is.
It’s a great read that will challenge your assumptions, stretch your mind, and grow your faith. I hope you’ll check it out today.