We have not always been close to God

🛐 Daily Prayer: "There was once a great gulf between us, but you have bridged that gulf"

Author

SpurgeonBooks
October 27, 2025

Pray with Spurgeon

Daily Newsletter from SpurgeonBooks

This week, our prayers and Scripture readings each day will focus on being close to God. Invite a friend to pray with you by sending them this link.

LISTEN TO TODAY’S NEWSLETTER

Pray with Spurgeon Plus subscribers receive an audio edition of the newsletter every weekday. If you prefer to listen instead of read, subscribe to Pray with Spurgeon Plus. Thanks for your support!

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Blessed God, Father, Son, and Spirit, our whole spirit reveres you; but we want to have such a close knowledge of your goodness that we might not be overawed with your greatness; such a sense of your nearness in the person of Jesus Christ, the man, the branch, that we might not be driven away with terror, but may be drawn near with love and holy boldness.

Lord, there was once a great gulf between us, but you have bridged that gulf; for now the Lord Jesus Christ is brother to our souls, yet he is also Son of the highest; truly man, yet truly God. We rejoice in Christ, and you rejoice in him too. We long to glorify him, and you also delight to glorify your Son. We lift him high and you have set him “far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given” (Ephesians 1:21).

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (James 4:8)

This text is not merely an invitation; it is a command. We must obey it. We need not entertain any fear that we will be an intruder when, in the exercise of his gracious sovereignty, God says to us, “Come!”

Notice also that he would not call us to himself if there were no road by which we could come. Once there was a great gulf fixed between us and God, but Jesus bridged the awful chasm. So draw near. The road to God is open to all who believe in Jesus. Finally, notice the encouraging promise. There is nothing about his casting out, spurning, or rejecting. We will be received graciously and loved freely. The promise is emphatic: “He will draw near to you.”

PRAY FOR THE NATIONS

This week, we’re praying for the Belide in Indonesia.

The Belide are an ethnic group in Sumatra, Indonesia. They are entirely Muslim. As far as we know, there are no Christians among them and they have never heard the gospel.

Pray that God would send missionaries to the Belide.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Enjoying God’s Grace EVERY DAY of Life

This week we’re focusing on being close to God — enjoying a real, intimate friendship with him. This is important — God does not merely call you to trust in his grace for your pardon (as if salvation was merely for escape from hell tomorrow) — he invites you to enjoy all of the fullness of himself in his Son. In our distracted world, this can seem difficult. We need reminders of the goodness of Christ to keep us focused. One of the most powerful reminders of Christ’s goodness to me recently has been Enjoying Jesus by Tim Chester.

This is an astounding book. Each chapter takes a different aspect of Jesus’ character or his work and shows you that it’s true and biblical AND really good news. 

In each chapter, Tim looks to a different story from the life of Christ in Luke’s Gospel. He retells these familiar stories in a way that leaves us freshly surprised and delighted at the goodness of Jesus in them.

But Enjoying Jesus also does a great job at making specific application in each chapter. He makes clear that we shouldn’t just know these truths about Jesus, we have to really ENJOY the savior they point to.

Really, this book was such a blessing to me when I read it for the first time last year. It filled me with a lot of lasting joy (not just cheap feelings) in the midst of a difficult season. I can’t wait to hear about how God uses it in your life.

LAST WORD FROM SPURGEON

“Keep close to Christ. Never let your heart be dissociated from intimate communion with him.” — Charles Spurgeon