DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)
Lord, we pray another prayer, which is this: that our friends and family who do not know the believer’s joy, may learn it today. Oh that this day may be as the beginning of days. Today, may some when they hear of the plenitude of blessing which you give to your people be made to long to be among that happy number.
Create, we ask you, a soul thirst in those who are self-satisfied. Breed a sharp hunger in the hearts of those who have been content with the good things of time and sense. May they begin to long after something more enduring, more satisfying; and when you have set them longing, reveal Christ Jesus to them, and let them see how he can fill the soul with peace and joy.
Amen.
VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)
“Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart’s desires.” (Psalm 37:4)
The religion of most people consists in abstaining from sins they secretly love. Negative godliness is common; it is supposed by most that our religion consists in things we must not do rather than in pleasures we may enjoy. And they suppose us to be a crabby, miserable bunch, who undoubtedly make up for denying ourselves in public by some private indulgence.
Now it is true that religion is self-denial; it is equally true that it is not self-denial. Christians have two selves. There is the old self, and there they do deny the flesh with its affections and lusts; but there is a new self, a newborn spirit, the new man in Christ Jesus. Our religion does not consist in any self-denial there. No, let it have the full swing of its wishes and desires, for all it can wish for, all it can pant after, all it can long to enjoy.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
God hears your prayers, not because you’re good enough (but because Jesus is)
Today we prayed, knowing 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 hope A Praying Life will help you deepen your prayer life this fall.