Plea That Applies Today

In Spurgeon's sermon on John 12:3, he makes a plea for men and women to be devoted. I quote it for you:

Beloved Friends, the Church of Christ needs a band of men and women full of enthusiasm who will go beyond others in devotion to the Lord Jesus. We need missionaries who will dare to die to carry the Gospel to regions beyond. We need ministers who will defy public opinion and, with flaming zeal, burn a way into men’s hearts. We need men and women who will consecrate all that they have by daring deeds of heroic self-sacrifice. Oh, that all Christians were like this, but we must at least have some! We need a bodyguard of loving champions to rally around the Savior, the bravest of the brave, Immortals and Invincibles, who shall lead the van of the armies of the Lord! Where are we to get them? How are they to be produced? The Holy Spirit’s way to train men and women who shall greatly serve Christ is to lead them to deep thought and quiet contemplation. There they obtain the knowledge and vital principle which are the fuel of true zeal. You cannot leap into high devotion, neither can you be preached into it, nor dream yourself into it, or be electrified into it by revivalism! It must, through the Divine energy of the Holy Spirit, arise out of hard, stern dealing with your soul and near and dear communion with your Savior! You must sit at His feet, or you will never anoint them! He must pour His Divine teaching into you, or you will never pour out a precious ointment upon Him!  ~Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Volume 55, Sermon no. 3174

A Great Devotional

From Frances Ridley Havergal's Evening Thoughts:

Midnight Rememberings.

'When I remember Thee upon my bed.' Psalm 63:6

Memory is never so busy as in the quiet time while we are waiting for sleep; and never, perhaps, are we more tempted to useless recollections and idle reveries than 'in the night watches.' Perhaps we have regretfully struggled against them; perhaps yielded to effortless indulgence in them, and thought we could not help it, and were hardly responsible for 'vain thoughts' at such times. But here is full help and bright hope. This night let us 'remember Thee.' We can only remember what we already know; oh praise Him then, that we have material for memory!

There is enough for all the wakeful nights of a lifetime in the one work 'Thee.' It leads us straight to 'His own self;' dwelling on that one word, faith, hope, and love, wake up and feed and grow. Then the holy remembrance, wrought by His Spirit, widens. For 'we will remember the name of the Lord our God,' in its sweet and manifold revelations. 'I will remember the years and 'the works of the Lord.' 'Surely I will remember Thy wonders of old.' Most of all 'we will remember Thy love,' the everlasting love of our Father, the 'exceeding great love of our Master and only Saviour,' the gracious, touching love of our Comforter. And the remembrance of all this love will include that of its grand act and proof, 'Thou shalt remember that....Jehovah thy God redeemed thee.'

Perhaps we know what it is to feel peculiarly weary-hearted and dispirited 'on our beds.' But when we say, O my God, my soul is cast down within me;' let us add at once, 'Therefore will I remember Thee.'

And what then? what comes of thus remembering Him? 'My soul' (yes, your soul) 'shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips: when I remember Thee upon my bed, and meditate on Thee in the night watches.' What can be a sweeter, fuller promise than this!---our heart's desire fulfilled in abundant satisfaction and joyful power of praise! Yet there is a promise sweeter and more thrilling still to the loving, longing heart. 'Thou meetest....those that remember Thee in Thy ways.' And so, this very night, as you put away the profitless musings and memories, and remember Him upon your bed, He will keep His word and meet you. The darkness shall be verily the shadow of His wing, for our feeble, yet Spirit-given remembrance, shall be met by His real and actual presence, for 'hath He said and shall He not do it? ' Let us pray that this night ' the desire of our soul' may be 'to Thy name, and to the remembrance of Thee.'

verses quoted : Psalm 17:3, 20:7, 77:10-11, Deut. 15:15, Psalm 42:6, 63:5-6