C.H. Spurgeon from Morning and Evening for today:
Beautiful in God's sight is tearful, agonizing, unconquerable importunity. It means praying humbly, for the Holy Spirit never puffs us up with pride. It is his office to convince of sin, and so to bow us down in contrition and brokenness of spirit. We shall never sing Gloria in excelsis except we pray to God De profundis: out of the depths must we cry, or we shall never behold glory in the highest. It is loving prayer. Prayer should be perfumed with love, saturated with love - love to our fellow saints, and love to Christ.
Elizabeth P. Prentiss, 1818-1878:
More love to thee, O Christ, more love to thee!
Hear thou the prayer I make on bended knee.
This is my earnest plea: More love, O Christ, to thee;
more love to thee, more love to thee!
Dear Father, as fears and all flavors of anxieties arise, as you bring persons to mind, as I consider past, present, and future, may my heart and thoughts turn quickly to praying in love and for love. More love to thee, oh precious Lord!
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:4-7
photo: April 23, 2011 - tree on hill at church farm
(now gone, as the building is going up!)
Sarah, I love to hear you blog. I love these words from Spurgeon! Thanks for thinking deeply and meditatively about your life in Christ. It will spur others on. You're a blessing!
ReplyDeleteThank you, sweetly broken (you have me intrigued as to your mystery identity; are you someone I know?)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement. I use the blog as a tool for myself, and it's nice to know others can get something out of it at times too.