We are sinners. Jesus chose us.

🛐 Daily Prayer: "Here we stand, Lord, a company of tax collectors and sinners with whom Jesus chooses to sit down."

Author

SpurgeonBooks
January 09, 2026

Pray with Spurgeon

Daily Newsletter from SpurgeonBooks

Thanks for praying with us this week. We’ll be back on Monday.

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Lay us low before you, aware that we are undeserving. Let us feel and mourn the atrocity of our guilt. God, we know a tender heart must come from you. By nature our hearts are stony; we are proud and self-righteous. Help everyone here to make an acceptable confession of sin, with much mourning, with much deep regret, with much self-loathing, and with the absence of anything like a pretense to merit or to excuse.

Here we stand, Lord, a company of tax collectors and sinners with whom Jesus chooses to sit down. Heal us, Immanuel! Here we are, needing that healing. Good Physician, here is work for you; come and show us your healing power! There are many of us who have looked to Jesus and are enlightened, but we confess that our faith was the gift of God. We would never have looked with these bleary eyes of ours to that dear cross, unless the heavenly light had shone first, and the heavenly finger had taken the thick scales away.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“I went up according to a revelation and presented to them the gospel I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those recognized as leaders. I wanted to be sure I was not running, and had not been running, in vain. But not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.” (Galatians 2:2–3)

By declaring the clear plain gospel of salvation by grace through faith, Paul lays the axe at the root of all ritualism, as he elsewhere does at the root of all rationalism. He might have decorated the gospel with learning and made it palatable to the Greeks, or he might have cramped it with tradition and made it agreeable to the Jews, but he scorned to do either.

If you begin being saved by the law, you must go through with it. You cannot take the principle of law and the principle of grace and blend those two together. They are like oil and water—they will never mix. If salvation be of works, it is not of grace; and if it be of grace, it is not of works. You cannot go upon the two contrary principles of merit and of favor.

PRAY FOR THE NATIONS

This week, we’re praying for the Aheria in India.

The desperate cry of Scripture is, “Let the peoples praise you, God, let all the peoples praise you” (Psalm 67:5). Seeing the praise of Christ spread to the Aheria will be difficult, but Christ is worthy.

Pray that the Aheria will worship Christ.

TOMORROW IN THE WEEKEND EDITION

Each Saturday, I send a bonus email to Pray with Spurgeon Plus subscribers. Here’s what to look forward to in tomorrow’s email:

  • Prayer for the Church — Prepare for Sunday with this prayer for the worship service

  • Q&A with Spurgeon — How does God feel about our self-confidence?

  • Spurgeon’s Letters — A letter Spurgeon sent to a sick missionary.

Don’t miss the Weekend Edition — subscribe to Pray with Spurgeon Plus so that I can continue sending this email for years to come.

LAST WORD FROM SPURGEON

“The general religion of mankind is ‘do,’ but the religion of the Christian is ‘done.’” — Charles Spurgeon