Prayers
Adapted from St. Augustine (354-430)
My God, let me know and love You, so that I may find my happiness in You. Since I cannot fully achieve this on earth, help me to improve daily until I may do so to the full. Enable me to know You ever more on earth, so that I may know You perfectly in heaven. In that way, my joy may be great on earth, and perfect with You in heaven. O God of truth, grant me the happiness of heaven so that my joy may be full in accord with Your promise. In the meantime let my mind dwell on that happiness, my tongue speak of it, my heart pine for it, my mouth pronounce it, my soul hunger for it, my flesh thirst for it, and my entire being desire it until I enter through death in the joy of my Lord forever–Amen.
Devotional Readings
Charles Spurgeon Devotionals from “Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith”
Galatians 6:8
‘He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting’ Galatians 6:8 Sowing looks like a losing business, for we put good corn into the ground never to see it any more. Sowing to the Spirit seems a very fanciful, dreamy business; for we deny ourselves, and apparently get nothing for it. Yet if we sow to the Spirit by studying to live unto God, seeking to obey the will of God, and laying ourselves out to promote his honour, we shall not sow in vain. Life shall be our reward, even everlasting life. This we enjoy here as we enter into the knowledge of God, communion with God, and enjoyment of God. This life flows on like an ever-deepening, ever-widening river, till it bears us to the ocean of infinite felicity, where the life of God is ours for ever and ever. Let us not this day sow to our flesh, for the harvest will be corruption, since flesh always tends that way; but with holy self-conquest let us live for the highest, purest, and most spiritual ends, seeking to honour our most holy Lord by obeying his most gracious Spirit. What a harvest will that be when we reap life everlasting! What sheaves of endless bliss will be reaped! What a festival will that harvest be! Lord, make us such reapers, for thy Son’s sake.
Elisabeth Elliot’s writings from Keep a Quiet Heart
From Elisabeth Elliot’s Keep a Quiet Heart
Calmly we look behind us, on joys and sorrows past, We know that all is mercy now, and shall be well at last; Calmly we look before us,-- we fear no future ill, Enough for safety and for peace, if Thou art with us still. Jane Borthwick
Other Devotionals
How to Magnify God
There are two kinds of magnifying: microscope magnifying and telescope magnifying. The one makes a small thing look bigger than it is. The other makes a big thing begin to look as big as it really is. When David says, “I will magnify God with thanksgiving,” he does not mean, “I will make a small God look bigger than he is.” He means, “I will make a big God begin to look as big as he really is.” We are not called to be microscopes. We are called to be telescopes. Christians are not called to be con-men who magnify their product out of all proportion to reality, when they know the competitor’s product is far superior. There is nothing and nobody superior to God. And so the calling of those who love God is to make his greatness begin to look as great as it really is. That’s why we exist, why we were saved, as Peter says in 1 Peter 2:9, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” The whole duty of the Christian can be summed up in this: feel, think, and act in a way that will make God look as great as he really is. Be a telescope for the world of the infinite starry wealth of the glory of God. This is what it means for a Christian to magnify God. But you can’t magnify what you haven’t seen or what you quickly forget. Therefore, our first task is to see and to remember the greatness and goodness of God. So we pray to God, “Open the eyes of my heart!” (Ephesians 1:18), and we preach to our souls, “Soul, forget not all his benefits!” (Psalm 103:2). Devotional by John Piper