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\ / Charles Spurgeon's MORNING & EVENING
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Wednesday, February 6, 2008
MORNING:
"Praying always."
-- Ephesians 6:18
What multitudes of prayers we have put up from the first moment when we
learned to pray. Our first prayer was a prayer for ourselves; we asked
that God would have mercy upon us, and blot out our sin. He heard us.
But when he had blotted out our sins like a cloud, then we had more
prayers for ourselves. We have had to pray for sanctifying grace, for
constraining and restraining grace; we have been led to crave for a
fresh assurance of faith, for the comfortable application of the
promise, for deliverance in the hour of temptation, for help in the
time of duty, and for succour in the day of trial. We have been
compelled to go to God for our souls, as constant beggars asking for
everything. Bear witness, children of God, you have never been able to
get anything for your souls elsewhere. All the bread your soul has
eaten has come down from heaven, and all the water of which it has
drank has flowed from the living rock-Christ Jesus the Lord. Your soul
has never grown rich in itself; it has always been a pensioner upon the
daily bounty of God; and hence your prayers have ascended to heaven for
a range of spiritual mercies all but infinite. Your wants were
innumerable, and therefore the supplies have been infinitely great, and
your prayers have been as varied as the mercies have been countless.
Then have you not cause to say, "I love the Lord, because he hath heard
the voice of my supplication"? For as your prayers have been many, so
also have been God's answers to them. He has heard you in the day of
trouble, has strengthened you, and helped you, even when you
dishonoured him by trembling and doubting at the mercy-seat. Remember
this, and let it fill your heart with gratitude to God, who has thus
graciously heard your poor weak prayers. "Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits."
EVENING:
"Pray one for another."
-- James 5:16
As an encouragement cheerfully to offer intercessory prayer, remember
that such prayer is the sweetest God ever hears, for the prayer of
Christ is of this character. In all the incense which our Great High
Priest now puts into the golden censer, there is not a single grain for
himself. His intercession must be the most acceptable of all
supplications-and the more like our prayer is to Christ's, the sweeter
it will be; thus while petitions for ourselves will be accepted, our
pleadings for others, having in them more of the fruits of the Spirit,
more love, more faith, more brotherly kindness, will be, through the
precious merits of Jesus, the sweetest oblation that we can offer to
God, the very fat of our sacrifice. Remember, again, that intercessory
prayer is exceedingly prevalent. What wonders it has wrought! The Word
of God teems with its marvellous deeds. Believer, thou hast a mighty
engine in thy hand, use it well, use it constantly, use it with faith,
and thou shalt surely be a benefactor to thy brethren. When thou hast
the King's ear, speak to him for the suffering members of his body.
When thou art favoured to draw very near to his throne, and the King
saith to thee, "Ask, and I will give thee what thou wilt," let thy
petitions be, not for thyself alone, but for the many who need his aid.
If thou hast grace at all, and art not an intercessor, that grace must
be small as a grain of mustard seed. Thou hast just enough grace to
float thy soul clear from the quicksand, but thou hast no deep floods
of grace, or else thou wouldst carry in thy joyous bark a weighty cargo
of the wants of others, and thou wouldst bring back from thy Lord, for
them, rich blessings which but for thee they might not have obtained:-
"Oh, let my hands forget their skill,
My tongue be silent, cold, and still,
This bounding heart forget to beat,
If I forget the mercy-seat!"
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Morning & Evening is the classic devotional by 19th-century writer
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