“It is a good rule never to look into the face of man in the morning till you have looked into the face of God; an equally good rule always to have business with heaven before you have any business with earth.” In this week’s sermon, Spurgeon issues a call to praise God for His lovingkindness every morning, and for His faithfulness each evening. God is worthy of the first words of our lips when we rise and of our final thoughts when we lie down. Each day is bookended with worship.
Not only is God worthy of praise, but He deserves our very best. We rob God by offering half-hearted worship. “The very posture of some people indicates that they are going through the hymn, but the hymn is not going through their hearts.” Spurgeon reminds us that songs are stagnant if the heart is unmoved.
How can a cold heart be kindled to warm and genuine worship? Meditate on the lovingkindness of God, fanning the flames of heartfelt praise. Through Christ’s sacrificial love, sinners are forgiven, transformed, and welcomed into God’s family. “Was there ever such a word in any language as that word lovingkindness? […] The very heart of God seems written out in this word.” We worship a God who deserves the soul’s freshest devotion and warmest praise in the morning and grateful prayers and reflections come evening.
Excerpt:
Every morning is a sort of resurrection. At night we lay us down to sleep, stripped of our garments, as our souls will be of their bodily array when we come to die; but the morning wakes us, and if it be a Sabbath morning we do not put on our work-day clothes, but find our Sabbath dress ready to hand; even thus shall we be satisfied when we wake up in our Master’s likeness, no more to put on the soiled raiment of earth, but to find it transformed into a Sabbath robe, in which we shall be beautiful and fair, even as Jesus our Lord himself. Now, as every morning brings to us, in fact, a resurrection from what might have been our tomb, and delivers us from the image of death which through the night we wore, it ought to be saluted with thanksgiving. As the great resurrection morning will be awakened with the sound of the trumpet’s far-sounding music, so let every morning, as though it were a resurrection to us, awaken us with hymns of joy.
Read the rest of the sermon here.