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God will give us new hearts
🛐 Daily Prayer: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."
Pray with Spurgeon
Daily Newsletter from SpurgeonBooks
This week, our prayers and Scripture readings each day will focus on hard hearts and soft hearts. Invite a friend to pray with you by sending them this link.
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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)
Oh God, we pray that you would fulfill that covenant promise, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). May we be very tender towards you; may we feel your most subtle warning; may even the gentlest breath of your Spirit be strong enough to move us; may we “ not be like a horse or mule, without understanding, that must be controlled with bit and bridle or else it will not come near you” (Psalm 32:9) but may we be like children obedient to a father; may we yield our hands cheerfully to the instruments of righteousness; may we have a natural desire from the new nature towards everything that is pure and honest, unselfish and christlike.
Amen.
VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside of it may also become clean.” (Matthew 23:25–26)
It is a unique feature in our holy religion that it begins its work within and acts first on the heart. Other religions, like that of the Pharisees, begin with outward forms and ceremonies, perhaps hoping to work inwardly from without, although the process never ends, for though the outside of the cup and the platter is made clean, the inside still remains just as full of rottenness as before. No truth is surer than this concerning all the sons of men, “You must be born again.” There must be an entire and radical change of man’s nature, or else he can never come where God is. The gospel does not flinch from this but enforces the declaration.
PRAY FOR THE NATIONS
This week, we’re praying for the Odienne Jula in Côte d'Ivoire.
The Odienne Jula are a tribe of 192,000 people in the southern coast of west Africa. There are no Christians among them, no churches they could attend, and no Bible in their language. They will never hear the name of Jesus unless someone from the outside tells them.
Pray that God would send missionaries to the Odienne Jula.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
How Can I Pursue Change From the Heart?
As we pray and study with Spurgeon this week, we’ll see that our hearts drive everything that we do. If we’re going to experience real and lasting change, we need to address our hearts, not just our behavior.
A fantastic resource for understanding how to pursue this kind of deeply rooted change in your own life (and to help others grow), read How People Change by Paul Tripp and Timothy Lane.
This is an intensely practical book that lays out a biblical framework for seeking real change. This book will help you know how to address all the sins in your life, no matter how long-standing or deeply rooted they are. I hope you’ll grab a copy and see God work this summer.
LAST WORD FROM SPURGEON
“Praise God with the heart he has changed, the lips he has loosed, and the life he has spared.” — Charles Spurgeon
