Rich Words from Spurgeon

The Shores of Lake Michigan

If you have read some of my blogposts in the past, you probably know that I have a fondness for Charles Spurgeon. The Lord has used his words to encourage, challenge, and convict me time and time again. Spurgeon's Morning & Evening devotionals for today were very thought-provoking. These are not the entire devotionals in full, but have been slightly shortened. I hope and pray that the following will be a challenge and encouragement to your soul tonight!

"Take up the cross, and follow me." (Mark 10:21) "You have not the making of your own cross, although unbelief is a master carpenter at cross-making; neither are you permitted to choose your own cross, although self-will would fain be lord and master; but your cross is prepared and appointed for you by divine love, and you are cheerfully to accept it; you are to take up the cross as your chosen badge and burden, and not to stand cavilling at it. This night Jesus bids you submit your shoulder to his easy yoke. Jesus was a cross-bearer; he leads the way in the path of sorrow. Surely you could not desire a better guide! And if he carried a cross, what nobler burden would you desire? Take up your cross, and by the power of the Spirit of God you will soon be so in love with it, that like Moses, you would not exchange the reproach of Christ for all the treasures of Egypt. Remember that Jesus carried it, and it will smell sweetly; remember that it will soon be followed by the crown, and the thought of the coming weight of glory will greatly lighten the present heaviness of trouble.

Lift up now thine eyes to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west, for all this is thine. There is not a brook of living water of which thou mayst not drink. Be thou bold to believe, for he hath said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."In this promise, God gives to His people everything. "I will never leave thee." Then no attribute of God can cease to be engaged for us. Is He mighty? He will show Himself strong on the behalf of them that trust Him. Is He love? Then with lovingkindness will He have mercy upon us. Whatever attributes may compose the character of Deity, every one of them to its fullest extent shall be engaged on our side. To put everything in one, there is nothing you can want, there is nothing you can ask for, there is nothing you can need in time or in eternity, there is nothing living, nothing dying, there is nothing in this world, nothing in the next world, there is nothing now, nothing at the resurrection-morning, nothing in heaven which is not contained in this text-"I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. "

~Charles Spurgeon