DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)
Precious Lord Jesus Christ, we adore you with all our hearts. You are the Lord of all. We praise you for becoming human, for being our closest relative. Through this kinship, we thank you for uniting us in a marriage union with yourself. You have redeemed us and our inheritance from the captivity into which we were sold. You have paid with your life for your people; you have ransomed your own with the blood of your heart. Therefore, be forever beloved and adored.
Amen.
VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)
“Come, see the works of the Lord, who brings devastation on the earth.” (Psalm 46:8)
He destroys those who destroy, and he devastates those who lay waste. This verse carries great weight even today! The ruined cities of Assyria, Babylon, Petra, Bashan, Canaan, serve as our teachers, inscribing on stone tablets the acts of the Lord. Whenever his cause and kingdom have been disregarded, ruin has inevitably followed. Sin has been a blight on nations, reducing their palaces to heaps of rubble.
In the days of the psalmist, there may have been a notable intervention by God against Israel’s enemies. Witnessing their downfall, he calls upon his fellow citizens to come forth and contemplate the righteous acts performed on their behalf. In our own land, dismantled castles and ruined abbeys stand as memorials of the Lord’s triumphs over oppression and superstition. May there be more of such desolations in the near future.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
Discover freedom from guilt and deeper joy in Christ
Today we prayed, asking Christ to help us love him more. 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.