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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Thursday, October 11, 2007
MORNING:
"Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the
heavens."
-- Lamentations 3:41
The act of prayer teaches us our unworthiness, which is a very salutary
lesson for such proud beings as we are. If God gave us favours without
constraining us to pray for them we should never know how poor we are,
but a true prayer is an inventory of wants, a catalogue of necessities,
a revelation of hidden poverty. While it is an application to divine
wealth, it is a confession of human emptiness. The most healthy state
of a Christian is to be always empty in self and constantly depending
upon the Lord for supplies; to be always poor in self and rich in
Jesus; weak as water personally, but mighty through God to do great
exploits; and hence the use of prayer, because, while it adores God, it
lays the creature where it should be, in the very dust. Prayer is in
itself, apart from the answer which it brings, a great benefit to the
Christian. As the runner gains strength for the race by daily exercise,
so for the great race of life we acquire energy by the hallowed labour
of prayer. Prayer plumes the wings of God's young eaglets, that they
may learn to mount above the clouds. Prayer girds the loins of God's
warriors, and sends them forth to combat with their sinews braced and
their muscles firm. An earnest pleader cometh out of his closet, even
as the sun ariseth from the chambers of the east, rejoicing like a
strong man to run his race. Prayer is that uplifted hand of Moses which
routs the Amalekites more than the sword of Joshua; it is the arrow
shot from the chamber of the prophet foreboding defeat to the Syrians.
Prayer girds human weakness with divine strength, turns human folly
into heavenly wisdom, and gives to troubled mortals the peace of God.
We know not what prayer cannot do! We thank thee, great God, for the
mercy-seat, a choice proof of thy marvellous lovingkindness. Help us to
use it aright throughout this day!
EVENING:
"Whom he did predestinate, them he also called."
-- Romans 8:30
In the second epistle to Timothy, first chapter, and ninth verse, are
these words-"Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling."
Now, here is a touchstone by which we may try our calling. It is "an
holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own
purpose and grace." This calling forbids all trust in our own doings,
and conducts us to Christ alone for salvation, but it afterwards purges
us from dead works to serve the living and true God. As he that hath
called you is holy, so must you be holy. If you are living in sin, you
are not called, but if you are truly Christ's, you can say, "Nothing
pains me so much as sin; I desire to be rid of it; Lord, help me to be
holy." Is this the panting of thy heart? Is this the tenor of thy life
towards God, and his divine will? Again, in Philippians, 3:13, 14, we
are told of "The high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Is then your
calling a high calling? Has it ennobled your heart, and set it upon
heavenly things? Has it elevated your hopes, your tastes, your desires?
Has it upraised the constant tenor of your life, so that you spend it
with God and for God? Another test we find in Hebrews 3:1-"Partakers of
the heavenly calling." Heavenly calling means a call from heaven. If
man alone call thee, thou art uncalled. Is thy calling of God? Is it a
call to heaven as well as from heaven? Unless thou art a stranger here,
and heaven thy home, thou hast not been called with a heavenly calling;
for those who have been so called, declare that they look for a city
which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God, and they
themselves are strangers and pilgrims upon the earth. Is thy calling
thus holy, high, heavenly? Then, beloved, thou hast been called of God,
for such is the calling wherewith God doth call his people.
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Morning & Evening is the classic devotional by 19th-century writer
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