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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
http://www.heartlight.org/
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Wednesday, October 31, 2007
MORNING:
"Renew a right spirit within me."
-- Psalms 51:10
A backslider, if there be a spark of life left in him will groan after
restoration. In this renewal the same exercise of grace is required as
at our conversion. We needed repentance then; we certainly need it now.
We wanted faith that we might come to Christ at first; only the like
grace can bring us to Jesus now. We wanted a word from the Most High, a
word from the lip of the loving One, to end our fears then; we shall
soon discover, when under a sense of present sin, that we need it now.
No man can be renewed without as real and true a manifestation of the
Holy Spirit's energy as he felt at first, because the work is as great,
and flesh and blood are as much in the way now as ever they were. Let
thy personal weakness, O Christian, be an argument to make thee pray
earnestly to thy God for help. Remember, David when he felt himself to
be powerless, did not fold his arms or close his lips, but he hastened
to the mercy-seat with "renew a right spirit within me." Let not the
doctrine that you, unaided, can do nothing, make you sleep; but let it
be a goad in your side to drive you with an awful earnestness to
Israel's strong Helper. O that you may have grace to plead with God, as
though you pleaded for your very life-"Lord, renew a right spirit
within me." He who sincerely prays to God to do this, will prove his
honesty by using the means through which God works. Be much in prayer;
live much upon the Word of God; kill the lusts which have driven your
Lord from you; be careful to watch over the future uprisings of sin.
The Lord has his own appointed ways; sit by the wayside and you will be
ready when he passes by. Continue in all those blessed ordinances which
will foster and nourish your dying graces; and, knowing that all the
power must proceed from him, cease not to cry, "Renew a right spirit
within me."
EVENING:
"I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great
drought."
-- Hosea 13:5
Yes, Lord, thou didst indeed know me in my fallen state, and thou didst
even then choose me for thyself. When I was loathsome and
self-abhorred, thou didst receive me as thy child, and thou didst
satisfy my craving wants. Blessed for ever be thy name for this free,
rich, abounding mercy. Since then, my inward experience has often been
a wilderness; but thou hast owned me still as thy beloved, and poured
streams of love and grace into me to gladden me, and make me fruitful.
Yea, when my outward circumstances have been at the worst, and I have
wandered in a land of drought, thy sweet presence has solaced me. Men
have not known me when scorn has awaited me, but thou hast known my
soul in adversities, for no affliction dims the lustre of thy love.
Most gracious Lord, I magnify thee for all thy faithfulness to me in
trying circumstances, and I deplore that I should at any time have
forgotten thee and been exalted in heart, when I have owed all to thy
gentleness and love. Have mercy upon thy servant in this thing!
My soul, if Jesus thus acknowledged thee in thy low estate, be sure
that thou own both himself and his cause now that thou art in thy
prosperity. Be not lifted up by thy worldly successes so as to be
ashamed of the truth or of the poor church with which thou hast been
associated. Follow Jesus into the wilderness: bear the cross with him
when the heat of persecution grows hot. He owned thee, O my soul, in
thy poverty and shame-never be so treacherous as to be ashamed of him.
O for more shame at the thought of being ashamed of my best Beloved!
Jesus, my soul cleaveth to thee.
"I'll turn to thee in days of light,
As well as nights of care,
Thou brightest amid all that's bright!
Thou fairest of the fair!"
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Morning & Evening is the classic devotional by 19th-century writer
and preacher Charles Spurgeon. It's part of HEARTLIGHT Magazine,
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