DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)
While we praise you this morning, we are longing that others might do the same. The deepest prayer of our own heart is, “your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Lord, bring our friends and kinsfolk to praise you—everyone. Just as all the tribes stood in their representatives around their father’s bed, so may all your children gather to the living God and praise him; let no one be absent.
We pray now, that you would bring in the lost sheep of the House of Israel; the many redeemed by blood, not yet redeemed by power, the many chosen who have never chosen you, the many who will be in the glory but as yet are glorying in their shame and minding earthly things. Bring, we pray, many under the influence of the gospel, myriads to worship Christ and to be saved by him; and may his name be as ointment poured forth in every place today, enchanting many and attracting them to bow at his feet.
Amen.
VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)
“Blow the ram’s horn on the day of our feasts during the new moon and during the full moon.” (Psalm 81:3)
Announce the sacred month, the beginning of months, when the Lord brought his people out of the house of bondage. Clear and shrill let the summons be which calls all Israel to adore the Redeeming Lord.
Obedience is to direct our worship, not whim and sentiment. God’s appointment gives a solemnity to rites and times which no ceremonial pomp or hierarchical ordinance could confer. The Jews not only observed the ordained month, but that part of the month which had been divinely set apart. The Lord’s people in the olden time welcomed the times appointed for worship; let us feel the same exultation, and never speak of worship as though it could be other than “a delight” and “honorable.”
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
How God’s grace helps you grow
As you make New Year’s Resolutions and plan for your growth in the New Year, do not slide into self-reliance.
God saved you by grace, and he is going to help you grow by grace too.
We ask God to help us grow in holiness, because we know that God’s grace doesn’t just save us from sin, it also gives us the power that we need to slay sin. The work of growing in godliness is a work of cooperation between us and God’s grace.
One of my all-time favorite books is The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges. This book explains how God’s grace empowers Christians to slay sin and grow in godliness. It is one of the helpful, practical, and encouraging books that I have ever read! If you want to grow in godliness, start with The Discipline of Grace.
Reading The Discipline of Grace will definitely help you grow in holiness in 2023. I hope you’ll grab a copy today.
This is the final newsletter for the week (we’ll be back on Monday)
I’m challenging parents to read the Bible with their kids every day in 2023. I’ve created some resources to help you, including my family devotions subscription, God Centered Family. I hope you’ll use these resources to make 2023 a #YearInTheWord. Click here to learn more.