Pray with Spurgeon

Daily Newsletter from SpurgeonBooks

This week, our prayers and Scripture readings each day will focus on God’s discipline. Next week, we’ll highlight a different theme. Invite a friend to pray with you by sending them this link.

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

For all the acts of discipline to which we are subject, we praise the wisdom and the love of our divine Father. You would not have us live in sin; sin is much worse than furnace work. All the trials in the world are not so hard to carry as a sense of sin is. Lord, if you give us choice to keep our sins and to live in pleasure, or to have them burnt away with trial, we will say to you, “Lord, give us the sanctified affliction, but deliver us from all the influences of sin, from every evil habit, from all the growths of former sin, all the ore that is mixed with the precious metal, everything that diminishes the brightness of your grace in us; everything that keeps you from taking delight in us, take it away, we beg you.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: My son, do not take the Lord’s discipline lightly or lose heart when you are reproved by him…” (Hebrews 12:5)

While the Christian shall never be arraigned before God’s bar as a criminal and punished for his guilt, yet he now stands in a new relationship—that of a child to his parent. As a son, he may be chastised on account of sin. Folly is bound up in the heart of all God’s children and the rod of the Father must bring that folly out of them. He does not punish the believer for his own sake; it is for the Christian’s sake—to do him good. God afflicts him for his profit. He lays on the rod for his child’s advantage. He has a good design toward the person who receives the chastisement.

PRAY FOR THE NATIONS

This week, we’re praying for the Tama of Chad.

This group of 222,000 Muslims has no Christians among them and no Bible in their language. They will never hear about Jesus unless someone crosses cultures to bring the good news to them.

Pray that missionaries would go to the Tama.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

God is always at work in your suffering (but not in the way you think)

This week, we are focusing on the theme of God’s discipline—those trials that we experience that help us slay sin and fight for godliness. But it’s important to remember that not all trials that we experience are acts of divine discipline.

Recently, I’ve read Suffering Wisely and Well: The Grief of Job and the Grace of God by Eric Ortlund. This is an incredible book that walks through the book of Job to find what we can learn about God’s purposes in suffering (and how we should relate to suffering people). This book really is a treasure—it is packed with practical advice for suffering people (and those who love them) all rooted in really clear explanation of Job (a book that, if I’m honest, I’ve struggled to understand and apply in the past).

If you are suffering, expect to suffer in the future, or know someone who will, OR you just want to better understand Job, this book is well worth your time. I hope you’ll grab a copy today.

Buy Suffering Wisely and Well:

• Amazon (Paperback or Kindle editions)

• ChristianBook (Paperback or ebook editions)