How many of us often discount the value of prayer. The heart wanders off and gets entangled in trivial pursuits. The affections once closely bound to a desperate desire for communion with God are now fettered with mere trifles.
Alas! how often do I see it in my own heart and life. We should not be surprised that sin has overtaken us, the way of holiness lost from us, if we neglect such a duty as prayer. To, in essence, deprive your heart from being exposed to the throne of grace is to deprive your heart of the source of grace.
Dear beloved, take great caution for your soul! Take heed lest you fall (1 Cor 10:12)! Neglect not the great importance of prayer, nay, the infinitely tremendous privilege of prayer! Oh, for prayer with God that infuses the soul with joy unspeakable, peace that surpasses all understanding, confidence in His infallible promises, strength in His ineffable holiness, hope in His unchanging, steadfast and everlasting love! Oh, dear reader, I bid you, if you do nothing else, do this, PRAY!
“…Men ought always to Pray.”—Jesus, Luke 18:1
“I will that men pray everywhere.”—Paul, 1 Timothy 2:8I 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 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 affections 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 reason for asking it.
I. I ask whether you pray, because prayer is absolutely needful to a person’s salvation.
III. I ask whether you pray, because there is no duty in religion so neglected as private prayer.
V. I ask whether you pray, because diligence in prayer is the secret of eminent holiness.
VI. I ask whether you pray, because neglect of prayer is one of the greatest causes of backsliding.
There is such a thing as going back in religion after making a good profession. People may run well for a season, like the Galatians, and then turn aside after false teachers. People may profess loudly while their feelings are warm, as Peter did, and then in the hour of trial deny their Lord. People may cool down in their zeal to do good, like John Mark the companion of Paul. People may follow an apostle for a season, and like Demas go back to the world. All these things people may do.
It is a miserable thing to be a backslider. Of all unhappy things that can befall a person, I suppose it is the worst. A stranded ship, a broken-winged eagle, a garden overrun with weeds, a harp without strings, a church in ruins, all these are sad sights, but a backslider is a sadder still. A wounded conscience-a mind sick of itself-a memory full of self-reproach-a heart pierced through with the Lord’s arrows- a-spirit broken with the inward accusation-all this is a taste of hell. It is hell on earth. Truly that saying of the wise man is solemn and weighty, “The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways.” Proverbs 14:14.
Now what is the case of most backslidings? I believe, as a general rule, one of the chief causes is neglected private prayer. Of course the secret history of falls will not be know till the last day. I can only give my opinion as a minister of Christ and a student of the heart. That opinions, I repeat distinctly, that backsliding generally first begins with neglect of private prayer.
Bibles read without prayer;
sermons heard without prayer;
marriages contracted without prayer;
journeys undertaken without prayer;
residences chosen without prayer;
friendships formed without prayer;
the daily act of prayer itself hurried over, or gone through without heart:these are the kind of downward steps by which many a Christian descends to a condition of spiritual palsy, or reaches the point where God allows them to have a tremendous fall.
This is the process which forms the lingering Lots, the unstable Samsons, the innocent Asas, the pliable Jehoshaphats, the over-careful Marthas, of whom so many are to be found in the church of Christ. Often the simple history of such cases is this: the became careless about private prayer.
You may be very sure people fall in private long before they fall in public. They are backsliders on their knees long before they backslide openly in the eyes of the world. Like Peter, they first disregard the Lord’s warning to watch and pray, and then like Peter, their strength is gone, and in the hour of temptation they deny their Lord.
The world takes notice of their fall, and scoffs loudly. But the world knows nothing of the real reason. The heathen succeeded in making a well-know Christians offer incense to an idol, by threatening them with a punishment worse than death. They triumphed greatly in the sight of their cowardice and apostasy. But the heathen did not know the fact of which history informs us, that on that very morning he had left his bed-chamber hastily, and without finishing his usual prayers.
If you are a Christian indeed, I trust you will never be a backslider. But if you do not want to be a backsliding Christian, remember the question I ask you:
DO YOU PRAY?
—J. C. Ryle, A Call To Prayer
Get the booklet by J.C. Ryle, “A Call to Prayer” here, or click here to read more.
