Daily Devotionals for March

by Charles Spurgeon

MARCH 1 – Desires Of The Joy Of The Redeemers Presence

MARCH 2 – Sharpen Your Zeal By The Aid Of The Holy Spirit

MARCH 3 – I Have Chosen Thee In The Furnace Of Affliction

MARCH 4 – My Grace Is Sufficient For Thee – Christian Meditation

MARCH 5 – Let Us Not Sleep, As Do Others

MARCH 6 – Ye Must Be Born Again

MARCH 7 – Have Faith In God

MARCH 8 – We Must Through Much Tribulation Enter Into The Kingdom Of God

MARCH 9 – He Is Altogether Lovely

MARCH 10 – In My Prosperity I Said I Shall Never Be Moved

MARCH 11 – Sin… Exceeding Sinful

MARCH 12 – Thou Shalt Love Thy Neighbor

MARCH 13 – Why Sit We Here Until We Die?

MARCH 14 – Let Him That Thinks He Stands Take Heed Lest He Fall

MARCH 15 – Be Strong In The Grace That Is In Christ Jesus

MARCH 16 – I Am A Stranger With Thee

MARCH 17 – Remember The Poor

MARCH 18 – Children Of God By Faith In Christ Jesus

MARCH 19 – Strong In Faith

MARCH 20 – My Beloved

MARCH 21 – Jesus Is Left Alone

MARCH 22 – He Fell On His Face And Prayed

MARCH 23 – How Tremendous The Weight Of Sin And Price Paid

MARCH 24 – He Was Heard In That He Feared

MARCH 25 – Betrayest Thou The Son Of Man With A Kiss

MARCH 26 – Jesus Said, If You Seek Me, Let These Go Their Way

MARCH 27 – Then All The Disciples Forsook Him And Fled

MARCH 28 – The Love Of Christ Which Passes Knowledge

MARCH 29 – Learned He Obedience By The Things Which He Suffered

MARCH 30 – He Was Numbered With The Transgressors

MARCH 31 – With His Stripes We Are Healed

October 12

“I will meditate in Thy precepts.”
– Psalm 119:15

There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is wiser than speech.

We should be better Christians if we were more alone, waiting upon God, and gathering through meditation on His Word spiritual strength for labour in His service.

We ought to muse upon the things of God, because we thus get the real nutriment out of them. Truth is something like the cluster of the vine: if we would have wine from it, we must bruise it; we must press and squeeze it many times. The bruiser’s feet must come down joyfully upon the bunches, or else the juice will not flow; and they must well tread the grapes, or else much of the precious liquid will be wasted.

So we must, by meditation, tread the clusters of truth, if we would get the wine of consolation therefrom. Our bodies are not supported by merely taking food into the mouth, but the process which really supplies the muscle, and the nerve, and the sinew, and the bone, is the process of digestion. It is by digestion that the outward food becomes assimilated with the inner life.

Our souls are not nourished merely by listening awhile to this, and then to that, and then to the other part of divine truth. Hearing, reading, marking, and learning, all require inwardly digesting to complete their usefulness, and the inward digesting of the truth lies for the most part in meditating upon it.

Why is it that some Christians, although they hear many sermons, make but slow advances in the divine life?

Because they neglect their closets, and do not thoughtfully meditate on God’s Word. They love the wheat, but they do not grind it; they would have the corn, but they will not go forth into the fields to gather it; the fruit hangs upon the tree, but they will not pluck it; the water flows at their feet, but they will not stoop to drink it. From such folly deliver us, O Lord, and be this our resolve this morning, “I will meditate in Thy precepts.”

October 8

 ”Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.”
– Luke 5:4

We learn from this narrative, the necessity of human agency. The draught of fishes was miraculous, yet neither the fisherman nor his boat, nor his fishing tackle were ignored; but all were used to take the fishes.

So in the saving of souls, God worketh by means; and while the present economy of grace shall stand, God will be pleased by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

When God worketh without instruments, doubtless He is glorified; but He hath Himself selected the plan of instrumentality as being that by which He is most magnified in the earth. Means of themselves are utterly unavailing.

“Master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing.”

What was the reason of this?

Were they not fishermen plying their special calling? Verily, they were no raw hands; they understood the work. Had they gone about the toil unskillfully?No. Had they lacked industry? No, they had toiled. Had they lacked perseverance? No, they had toiled all the night. Was there a deficiency of fish in the sea? Certainly not, for as soon as the Master came, they swam to the net in shoals.

What, then, is the reason?

Is it because there is no power in the means of themselves apart from the presence of Jesus? “Without Him we can do nothing.” But with Christ we can do all things. Christ’s presence confers success.

Jesus sat in Peter’s boat, and His will, by a mysterious influence, drew the fish to the net.

When Jesus is lifted up in His Church, His presence is the Church’s power–the shout of a king is in the midst of her. “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.”

Let us go out this morning on our work of soul fishing, looking up in faith, and around us in solemn anxiety. Let us toil till night comes, and we shall not labour in vain…

for He who bids us let down the net, will fill it with fishes.

October 1

“Pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.”
– Song of Solomon 7:13

The spouse desires to give to Jesus all that she produces. Our heart has “all manner of pleasant fruits,” both “old and new,” and they are laid up for our Beloved.

At this rich autumnal season of fruit, let us survey our stores.

We have new fruits.

• We desire to feel new life, new joy, new gratitude;
• we wish to make new resolves and carry them out by new labours;
• our heart blossoms with new prayers,
• and our soul is pledging herself to new efforts.

But we have some old fruits too.

• There is our first love: a choice fruit that! and Jesus delights in it.
• There is our first faith: that simple faith by which, having nothing, we became possessors of all things.
• There is our joy when first we knew the Lord: let us revive it.
• We have our old remembrances of the promises. How faithful has God been!
• In sickness, how softly did He make our bed!
• In deep waters, how placidly did He buoy us up!
• In the flaming furnace, how graciously did He deliver us.

Old fruits, indeed! We have many of them, for His mercies have been more than the hairs of our head. Old sins we must regret, but then we have had repentances which He has given us, by which we have wept our way to the cross, and learned the merit of His blood.

We have fruits, this morning, both new and old; but here is the point–they are all laid up for Jesus. Truly, those are the best and most acceptable services in which Jesus is the solitary aim of the soul, and His glory, without any admixture whatever, the end of all our efforts.

Let our many fruits be laid up only for our Beloved; let us display them when He is with us, and not hold them up before the gaze of men. Jesus, we will turn the key in our garden door, and none shall enter to rob Thee of one good fruit from the soil which Thou hast watered with Thy bloody sweat.

Our all shall be Thine, Thine only, O Jesus, our Beloved!

Morning by Morning by Charles Spurgeon

September 30

“Sing forth the honor of his name, make his praise glorious.”
– Psalm 66:2

It is not left to our own option whether we shall praise God or not.

Praise is God’s most righteous due, and every Christian, as the recipient of his grace, is bound to praise God from day to day. It is true we have no authoritative rubric for daily praise; we have no commandment prescribing certain hours of song and thanksgiving: but the law written upon the heart teaches us that it is right to praise God; and the unwritten mandate comes to us with as much force as if it had been recorded on the tables of stone, or handed to us from the top of thundering Sinai.

Yes, it is the Christian’s duty to praise God. It is not only a pleasurable exercise, but it is the absolute obligation of his life. Think not ye who are always mourning, that ye are guiltless in this respect, or imagine that ye can discharge your duty to your God without songs of praise. You are bound by the bonds of his love to bless his name so long as you live, and His praise should continually be in your mouth, for you are blessed, in order that you may bless him; “this people have I formed for myself, they shall show forth my praise”; and if you do not praise God, you are not bringing forth the fruit which he, as the Divine Husbandman, has a right to expect at your hands.

Let not your harp then hang upon the willows, but take it down, and strive, with a grateful heart, to bring forth its loudest music. Arise and chant his praise. With every morning’s dawn, lift up your notes of thanksgiving, and let every setting sun be followed with your song. Girdle the earth with your praises; surround it with an atmosphere of melody, and God himself will hearken from heaven and accept your music.

“E’en so I love thee, and will love,
And in thy praise will sing,
Because thou art my loving God,
And my redeeming King.”

Morning by Morning by Charles Spurgeon

September 29

“Behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague.”
– Leviticus 13:13

Strange enough this regulation appears, yet there was wisdom in it, for the throwing out of the disease proved that the constitution was sound.

This morning it may be well for us to see the typical teaching of so singular a rule. We, too, are lepers, and may read the law of the leper as applicable to ourselves. When a man sees himself to be altogether lost and ruined, covered all over with the defilement of sin, and no part free from pollution; when he disclaims all righteousness of his own, and pleads guilty before the Lord, then is he clean through the blood of Jesus, and the grace of God.

Hidden, unfelt, unconfessed iniquity is the true leprosy, but when sin is seen and felt it has received its death blow, and the Lord looks with eyes of mercy upon the soul afflicted with it. Nothing is more deadly than self-righteousness, or more hopeful than contrition. We must confess that we are “nothing else but sin,” for no confession short of this will be the whole truth, and if the Holy Spirit be at work with us, convincing us of sin, there will be no difficulty about making such an acknowledgment—it will spring spontaneously from our lips.

What comfort does the text afford to those under a deep sense of sin! Sin mourned and confessed, however black and foul, shall never shut a man out from the Lord Jesus. Whosoever cometh unto him, he will in no wise cast out. Though dishonest as the thief, though unchaste as the woman who was a sinner, though fierce as Saul of Tarsus, though cruel as Manasseh, though rebellious as the prodigal, the great heart of love will look upon the man who feels himself to have no soundness in him, and will pronounce him clean, when he trusts in Jesus crucified.

Come to him, then, poor heavy-laden sinner,
Come needy, come guilty, come loathsome and bare;
You can’t come too filthy—come just as you are.

Morning by Morning by Charles Spurgeon

September 27

“Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord!”
– Deuteronomy 33:29

He who affirms that Christianity makes men miserable, is himself an utter stranger to it.

It were strange indeed, if it made us wretched, for see to what a position it exalts us! It makes us sons of God.

• Suppose you that God will give all the happiness to his enemies, and reserve all the mourning for his own family?
• Shall his foes have mirth and joy, and shall his home-born children inherit sorrow and wretchedness?
• Shall the sinner, who has no part in Christ, call himself rich in happiness, and shall we go mourning as if we were penniless beggars?

No, we will rejoice in the Lord always, and glory in our inheritance, for we “have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but we have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”

The rod of chastisement must rest upon us in our measure, but it worketh for us the comfortable fruits of righteousness; and therefore by the aid of the divine Comforter, we, the “people saved of the Lord,” will joy in the God of our salvation. We are married unto Christ; and shall our great Bridegroom permit his spouse to linger in constant grief?

Our hearts are knit unto him: we are his members, and though for awhile we may suffer as our Head once suffered, yet we are even now blessed with heavenly blessings in him. We have the earnest of our inheritance in the comforts of the Spirit, which are neither few nor small. Inheritors of joy forever, we have foretastes of our portion. There are streaks of the light of joy to herald our eternal sunrising.

Our riches are beyond the sea; our city with firm foundations lies on the other side the river; gleams of glory from the spirit-world cheer our hearts, and urge us onward.

Truly is it said of us, “Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord?”

Morning by Morning by Charles Spurgeon

September 26

“The myrtle trees that were in the bottom.”
– Zechariah 1:8

The vision in this chapter describes the condition of Israel in Zechariah’s day; but being interpreted in its aspect towards us, it describes the Church of God as we find it now in the world.

The Church is compared to a myrtle grove flourishing in a valley. It is hidden, unobserved, secreted; courting no honor and attracting no observation from the careless gazer. The Church, like her head, has a glory, but it is concealed from carnal eyes, for the time of her breaking forth in all her splendor is not yet come. The idea of tranquil security is also suggested to us: for the myrtle grove in the valley is still and calm, while the storm sweeps over the mountain summits. Tempests spend their force upon the craggy peaks of the Alps, but down yonder where flows the stream which maketh glad the city of our God, the myrtles flourish by the still waters, all unshaken by the impetuous wind.

How great is the inward tranquility of God’s Church! Even when opposed and persecuted, she has a peace which the world gives not, and which, therefore, it cannot take away: the peace of God which passeth all understanding keeps the hearts and minds of God’s people.

Does not the metaphor forcibly picture the peaceful, perpetual growth of the saints? The myrtle sheds not her leaves, she is always green; and the Church in her worst time still hath a blessed verdure of grace about her; nay, she has sometimes exhibited most verdure when her winter has been sharpest. She has prospered most when her adversities have been most severe. Hence the text hints at victory.

The myrtle is the emblem of peace, and a significant token of triumph. The brows of conquerors were bound with myrtle and with laurel; and is not the Church ever victorious? Is not every Christian more than a conqueror through him that loved him? Living in peace, do not the saints fall asleep in the arms of victory?

Morning by Morning by Charles Spurgeon

September 25

“Just, and the justifier of him which believeth.”
– Romans 3:26

Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.

Conscience accuses no longer. Judgment now decides for the sinner instead of against him. Memory looks back upon past sins, with deep sorrow for the sin, but yet with no dread of any penalty to come; for Christ has paid the debt of his people to the last jot and tittle, and received the divine receipt; and unless God can be so unjust as to demand double payment for one debt, no soul for whom Jesus died as a substitute can ever be cast into hell.

It seems to be one of the very principles of our enlightened nature to believe that God is just; we feel that it must be so, and this gives us our terror at first; but is it not marvelous that this very same belief that God is just, becomes afterwards the pillar of our confidence and peace! If God be just, I, a sinner, alone and without a substitute, must be punished; but Jesus stands in my stead and is punished for me; and now, if God be just, I, a sinner, standing in Christ, can never be punished. God must change his nature before one soul, for whom Jesus was a substitute, can ever by any possibility suffer the lash of the law.

Therefore, Jesus having taken the place of the believer—having rendered a full equivalent to divine wrath for all that his people ought to have suffered as the result of sin, the believer can shout with glorious triumph, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” Not God, for he hath justified; not Christ, for he hath died, “yea rather hath risen again.”

My hope lives not because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, He is my righteousness.

My faith rests not upon what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what he has done, and in what he is now doing for me.

On the lion of justice the fair maid of hope rides like a queen!

Morning by Morning by Charles Spurgeon

September 23

“Accepted in the beloved.”
– Ephesians 1:6

What a state of privilege! It includes our justification before God, but the term “acceptance” in the Greek means more than that. It signifies that we are the objects of divine complacence, nay, even of divine delight.

How marvellous that we, worms, mortals, sinners, should be the objects of divine love! But it is only “in the beloved.”

Some Christians seem to be accepted in their own experience, at least, that is their apprehension. When their spirit is lively, and their hopes bright, they think God accepts them, for they feel so high, so heavenly-minded, so drawn above the earth! But when their souls cleave to the dust, they are the victims of the fear that they are no longer accepted. If they could but see that all their high joys do not exalt them, and all their low despondencies do not really depress them in their Father’s sight, but that they stand accepted in One who never alters, in One who is always the beloved of God, always perfect, always without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, how much happier they would be, and how much more they would honor the Saviour!

Rejoice then, believer, in this: thou art accepted “in the beloved.” Thou lookest within, and thou sayest, “There is nothing acceptable here!” But look at Christ, and see if there is not everything acceptable there. Thy sins trouble thee; but God has cast thy sins behind his back, and thou art accepted in the Righteous One. Thou hast to fight with corruption, and to wrestle with temptation, but thou art already accepted in him who has overcome the powers of evil. The devil tempts thee; be of good cheer, he cannot destroy thee, for thou art accepted in him who has broken Satan’s head.

Know by full assurance thy glorious standing. Even glorified souls are not more accepted than thou art. They are only accepted in heaven “in the beloved,” and thou art even now accepted in Christ after the same manner.