3 Challenging Thoughts from Charles Spurgeon Regarding the Word, the Church, and the Spirit

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A Lesson on Prayer from a Depressed Charles Spurgeon

Any time I’ve asked a group of church-goers how they feel about their prayer life, the answer is always that it could be better. In fact, I don’t believe even once I’ve heard someone say they’re content in it. Part of the reason for this is simply bound up in the reality that as Don Whitney says, “…when we pray, we tend to say the same old things about the same old things. And when you’ve said the same old things about the same old things about a thousand times, how do you feel about saying them again? Bored!” This really is a tremendous insight that cuts to the heart of much of the issue people face with prayer. Rote repetition is their prayer life—is it any wonder that in the midst of prayer their minds wander to something else, almost as if it is begging for something more engaging. Prayer should be engaging. Yet often it is anything but and we know it, and because we know we are to do it to be faithful, we limp through it out of sheer guilt.

If this describes you and your prayer life, I would earnestly recommend purchasing Don Whitney’s book and putting it into practice. Instead of tasking the reader with multiple steps to a better prayer life, Whitney advocates a simple approach: you pray using scripture as your source, namely, the psalms. The reason being we can avoid vain repetition in our prayers, use inspired text that covers a wide range of emotions, doctrines, and troubles, and initiate the conversation of prayer with God freely. The goal is that our prayers are informed by the Word of God. In essence, we are speaking God’s own words back to Him, and the result is that we not only have biblically saturated prayer, but we know these will be prayers God honors and is honored by. Another great resource that I’d recommend is D.A. Carson’s book, which has a similar proposal utilizing the apostle Paul’s prayers.

Read more of this blog: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/chorusinthechaos/lesson-prayer-depressed-charles-spurgeon/

Hope

(Charles Spurgeon)

“The HOPE which is reserved for you in Heaven.” Colossians 1:5

Our hope in Christ for the future, is the mainspring and the mainstay of our joy here on earth.
It will animate our hearts to think often of Heaven, for all that we can desire is promised there.

Here on earth we are weary and toil-worn. Yonder is the land of rest, where the sweat of labor shall no more bedew the worker’s brow, and fatigue shall be forever banished. To those who are weary and woe-worn, the word “rest” is full of Heaven.

We are always in the field of battle. We are so tempted within, and so molested by foes without–that we have little or no peace! But in Heaven we shall enjoy the victory, when the banner shall be waved aloft in triumph, and the sword shall be forever sheathed, and we shall hear our Captain say, “Well done, good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your Lord!”

We have suffered bereavement after bereavement–but we are going to the land of the immortal, where graves are unknown things.

Here on earth, sin is a constant grief to us–but there we shall be perfectly holy, for nothing which defiles shall enter into that pure kingdom! Hemlock does not spring up in the furrows of celestial fields.

Oh! is it not joy, that we are not to be in a state of banishment forever–that we are not to dwell eternally in this wilderness, but shall soon inherit everlasting glory!

Nevertheless let it never be said of us, that we are dreaming about the future–and forgetting the present. Let the future sanctify the present to highest uses. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the hope of Heaven is the most potent force for the production of virtue! It is a fountain of joyous effort–it is the cornerstone of cheerful holiness.

The man who has this hope in Jesus goes about his work with vigor, for the joy of the Lord is his strength. He fights against temptation with ardor, for the hope of the next world repels the fiery darts of the adversary. He can labor without present reward, “for here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come!” Hebrews 13:1

“The hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time!” Titus 1:2

“While we wait for the blessed hope–the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ!” Titus 2:13

“Having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:7 

What Happens When You Grieve the Holy Spirit

“And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”—Eph. 4:30.

Charles Spurgeon shared the following in a sermon featured in the new volume Walking in the Power of the Holy Spirit (emphasis mine):

Very briefly—much too briefly—[I will share on] the lamentable result of the Spirit’s being grieved.

In the child of God it will not lead to his utter destruction, for no heir of heaven can perish; neither will the Holy Spirit be utterly taken away from him, for the Spirit of God is given to abide with us for ever. But the ill-effects are nevertheless most terrible.

You will lose, my dear friends, all sense of the Holy Spirit’s presence: he will be as one hidden from you—no beams of comfort, no words of peace, no thoughts of love—there will be what Cowper calls, “an aching void which the world can never fill.”

There is more: https://www.kevinhalloran.net/what-happens-when-you-grieve-the-holy-spirit/

God’s thoughts of you

Spurgeon’s 15 Tips for a Deep and Effective Prayer Life

http://www.kevinhalloran.net/spurgeons-15-tips-for-a-deep-and-effective-prayer-life/

Why God Delays in Answering Prayer

https://www.challies.com/quotes/why-god-delays-in-answering-prayer/

Atheism

It is a tough battle

It is a tough battle which the Christian is called to fight; not one which the weak and soft might win; no easy skirmish which he might gain who dashed to battle on some sunshiny day.. It is a lifelong war — a contest which will require all our strength if we are to be triumphant, a battle at which the stoutest heart might quail, a fight from which the bravest would shrink did he not remember that the Lord is on his side: therefore whom shall he fear? God is the strength of his life: of whom shall he be afraid? This fight is not one of main force or physical might; if it were, we might the sooner win it; but it is all the more dangerous from the fact that it is a strife of mind, a contest of heart, a struggle of the spirit — ofttimes an agony of the soul.

~ Charles Spurgeon

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