Posted on 06/13/2006 8:46:04 AM PDT by Frumanchu
Do you pray?
I have a question to offer you. It is contained in three words, Do you pray?
The question is one that none but you can answer. Whether you attend public worship or not, your minister knows. Whether you have family prayers in your house or not, your relations know. But whether you pray in private or not, is a matter between yourself and God.
I beseech you in all affection to attend to the subject I bring before you. Do not say that my question is too close. If your heart is right in the sight of God, there is nothing in it to make you afraid. Do not turn off my question by replying that you say your prayers. It is one thing to say your prayers and another to pray. Do not tell me that my question is unnecessary. Listen to me for a few minutes, and I will show you good reasons for asking it.
Needful for salvation
I ask whether you pray, because prayer is absolutely needful to a man’s salvation.
I say, absolutely needful, and I say so advisedly. I am not speaking now of infants or idiots. I am not settling the state of the heathen. I know that where little is given, there little will be required. I speak especially of those who call themselves Christians, in a land like our own. And of such I say, no man or woman can expect to be saved who does not pray.
I hold salvation by grace as strongly as any one. I would gladly offer a free and full pardon to the greatest sinner that ever lived. I would not hesitate to stand by his dying bed, and say, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ even now, and you shall be saved.” But that a man can have salvation without asking for it, I cannot see in the Bible. That a man will receive pardon of his sins, who will not so much as lift up his heart inwardly, and say, “Lord Jesus, give it to me,” this I cannot find. I can find that nobody will be saved by his prayers, but I cannot find that without prayer anybody will be saved.
It is not absolutely needful to salvation that a man should read the Bible. A man may have no learning, or be blind, and yet have Christ in his heart. It is not absolutely needful that a man should hear public preaching of the gospel. He may live where the gospel is not preached, or he may be bedridden, or deaf. But the same thing cannot be said about prayer. It is absolutely needful to salvation that a man should pray.
Personal responsibility
There is no royal road either to health or learning. Princes and kings, poor men and peasants, all alike must attend to the wants of their own bodies and their own minds. No man can eat, drink, or sleep by proxy. No man can get the alphabet learned for him by another. All these are things which a person must do for himself, or they will not be done at all.
Just as it is with the mind and body, so it is with the soul. There are certain things absolutely needful to the soul’s health and well-being. Each must attend to these things for himself. Each must repent for himself. Each must apply to Christ for himself. And for himself each must speak to God and pray. You must do it for yourself, for by nobody else can it be done.
To be prayerless is to be without God, without Christ, without grace, without hope, and without heaven. It is to be on the road to hell. Now can you wonder that I ask the question, Do you pray?
I do not have a set schedule for this, but I do play to post all fourteen parts for discussion among, and mutual edification of, my brothers and sisters in Christ. Please keep all comments respectful and relevant to the topic of prayer as an essential part of our lives in Christ.
Ping to GRPL and several saints.
Well, Paul comes to mind.
"I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me." -- Romans 10:20
Don't think that's quite the same context or what Ryle was referring to though.
Prayer is an oasis of refreshment in a dry desert, a spring that refreshes a weary soul. Sometimes I have been too delirious from the heat of my own circumstances to realize how close I am to cool restoration received in prayer; God calls me to drink or I would perish.
Thank you Fru, I look forward to each post.
"All I know is that when I pray, coincidences happen. When I don't pray, they don't happen."
I don't think it's possible for a person to really be saved and not to pray. It's like fish in water. But, like Paul, you must be struck.
Prayer, like repentance and faith and all good works, is a result of God's action within us. As you've often reminded us with Scripture, what do we have that we have not been given?
We pray because we are told to pray. We pray because it brings us closer to God. We pray because it is one of God's many gifts to us.
There have been times when I've been worried about something and been unable to sleep. I turn to God in prayer and thank Him for my life and His blessings and then I fall asleep. Just one simple reminder that He loves His flock.
There is no "natural reaction to pray" in man. Our "natural reaction" is to turn from God and flee.
VERY GOOD POINT! I stand corrected.
Thanks for the ping.
Thanks for the ping!
FYI, I've attended services at Mount Zion church and it was wonderful. They took us on a tour of their printing ministry and it was pretty awesome.
I felt like a kid in a candy store. ;^)
I recommend that everyone get on their mailing list and avail yourself of their material. Everything is free and the only ask that you donate what you can if you feel the Lord is leading you in that direction.
No problem. How are things?
I've already found a great deal of extremely useful stuff there. I'll definitely get on that mailing list, and hopefully will be in a good position to give to their ministry soon.
Far busier than they should be. But we're doing well.
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