Do You Pray?
3 Thoughts after Reading the book Do You Pray? by J.C. Ryle
In the late nineteenth century in England there was a man by the name of J.C. Ryle serving as a Bishop of Liverpool and writing in abundance. If you have ever thought your experience of the Chrisitian life is uniquely located in the time in history we are in now, I beg you to read some words by Ryle. I recently read a short book from him carrying the same title as this post. It’s has been putting words behind the unsettledness that I already was feeling deep in my soul.
The Need is Real and Contemporary
I’ve had multiple conversations with brothers and sisters in Christ about our great need for prayer. Why don’t we pray? Are we too busy? Are we that self-sufficient that we truly believe we do not need God’s help? Do we think our problems are too small for God to be bothered with hearing? I believe the lack of prayer in our lives is not simply a modern problem, but a human problem. Perhaps this problem has been exacerbated by the current climate of constant busyness and anxiety, but it is an age old problem nonetheless. So many of us are overwhelmed; with work, family, entertainment, schedules, pain, difficulty and life itself. We go to God in the depths of despair, but when a moment of relief is given, fall back into the same bad habitual forgetfulness that we had before.
Do you pray?
Only you Know
Ryle opens his book by asking this question, “I want to ask you an exceptionally important questions. It is the title of this short book and it is contained in just three words: Do you pray?” So, do you? Ryle writes simple sentences that end with each chapter asking the question over and over again, do you pray? The opening chapter lays out the reasoning why Ryle asks this question, “only you know” the answer to this question. All of our churches in their best efforts in discipleship simply cannot make you be prayerful. You can write prayers in on each Sunday as my church offers. We can offer services devoted to prayer. We can begin and end our services in prayer. We can train our small group leaders to pray with their groups and classes. We can do all we can, but prayer is in its most needed form, personal and “private”.
So, do you pray?
Prayer is Vital
Ryle makes the case that “I sincerely believe that if a person does not pray, they cannot expect to be saved.” At first, I blubbered internally at this statement. This cannot be, salvation is by faith alone, grace alone, which Ryle immediately agrees to in the following paragraph. He points out that even to begin faith in Christ, it must begin with a prayer. We cannot accept the gift of salvation without in some way praying to receive the gift. It’s at the end of the chapter that I think he gives clarity to this reality. Ryle says, “Let me tell you, the prayerless person will be without God, without Christ, without grace, without hope and without heaven.” I don’t know where you fall on salvation in your theology, free will or predestined. However, the point is that no matter salvifically, if we do not pray as we are called, we will practically be living life without these spiritual realities listed above. We will be living our daily life as what I’ve heard called, “practical atheism”. If we do not pray in all circumstances we will be daily living; without God giving us wisdom, without Christ bringing us hope, without grace given to us through forgiveness, and without the truth of heaven impacting our daily life and decisions. No Christian would verbally say they wanted this, but so many spend their time and mental capacity as if the opposite were true.