Back to our Extended Ryle, we are almost done reviewing the book.
Beloved brethren, whether you are just beginning your conversation with our Savior or starting again for the third (or one hundredth) time as you get to know God through prayer, J.C. Ryle expresses like no other the encouragement we need to press on to know the Lord as Hosea exhorts us - chapter 6 verse 3.
Perhaps the most poignant exhortation to prayer ever:
"Wait not because you feel unworthy. Wait for nothing. Wait for nobody. Waiting comes from the devil. just as you are, go to Christ. The worse you are, the more need you have to apply to him. You will never mend yourself by staying away."
John Charles Ryle's challenges:
"I warn you that of all professing Christians you are most utterly without excuse. There is not a single good reason that you can show for living without prayer."
"It is useless to say you know not how to pray. Prayer is the simplest act in all religion. It is simply speaking to God. It needs neither learning nor wisdom nor book knowledge to begin it. It needs nothing but heart and will. The weakest infant can cry when he is hungry. The poorest beggar can hold out his hand for alms, and does not wait to find fine words. The most ignorant man will find something to say to God, if he has only a mind."
"It is useless to say you have no convenient place to pray in. Any man can find a place private enough, if he is disposed. Our Lord prayed on a mountain; Peter on the housetop; Isaac in the field; Nathanael under the fig tree; Jonah in the whale's belly. Any place may become a closet, an oratory, and a Bethel, and be to us the presence of God."
"It is useless to say you have no time. There is plenty of time, if men will employ it. Time may be short, but time is always long enough for prayer."
"Apply this for a life time no matter how you feel, even if you fall, even if you know you have grieved the Holy Spirit beyond all human capacity to forgive, remember, He is not human and His compassion and forgiveness never fails."
"What a man is on his knees before God, that he is and nothing more."
Robert Murray M'Cheyne
Assistant Editor: Seven Jefferson Gossard
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freerangeprayer@gmail.com
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All our Scripture quotes are drawn from the NASB 1977 edition.
For access to the Voice Over services of Richard Durrington, please visit RichardDurrington.com or email him at Durringtonr@gmail.com
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Season 005
Episode 085