Scripture both encourages and exhorts us to devote ourselves to prayer. Jesus expects his disciples to pray daily (Matt 6:11), providing us with instructions about our motives (Matt 6:5) and how to prioritize our requests (Matt 6:7-13; 9:38). He also provides his disciples with wonderful promises and parables to help us to pray and persevere in prayer (Luke 18:1; John 14:13).
Jesus himself was an example of devotion to prayer. The Gospels record several occasions when Jesus removed himself from the crowds and from his disciples to spend time alone with this Father (Matt 14:23; 26:36; Mark 6:46; Luke 5:16; 6:12). He expects us to do the same.
Throughout Paul’s letters, the apostle reminds his readers to give themselves to prayer (Rom 12:12; Eph 6:18; Phil 4:6; Col 4:2; 1 Thess 5:17). We are to pray without ceasing, pray continually, and pray at all times.
Why does the New Testament call us to a life of consistent, regular, intentional prayer? In his excellent book, Practical Religion, Ryle answers this very question in his chapter on the topic. I have found Ryle’s words on this topic to be particularly helpful.
Why must we pray? Ryle offers seven reasons.
We Must Pray if We Will Be Saved
Ryle is careful to say that a mere ritual of praying has no saving power, for we are saved by faith alone in Christ alone through God’s grace alone, not our own doing. Nevertheless, it is through believing prayer that we first receive Christ (see Rom 10:13), and prayer keeps us in close communion with Christ, which is vital to enabling us to persevere all the way to heaven. “In short,” Ryle concludes, “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.”
The Habit of Prayer is One of the Surest Marks of a Christian
“Just as the first sign of life in an infant when born into the world, is the act of breathing,” Ryle notes, “so the first act of men and women when they are born again, is praying.” Ryle reminds us that the elect in Scripture are those who cry to God day and night (Luke 18:7), and that our Spirit of adoption compels us to call out to God as our Abba, Father (Rom 8:15). This compulsion to pray is because we sense our desperate need for God and his grace. “They feel their emptiness and weakness. They cannot do otherwise than they do. They must pray.”
Ryle also observes that the saints in the Bible and the eminent saints in church history have always been people of prayer. And, while it may be true that a person can pray and not be saved (see Matt 6:5), it even more certain that a person who doesn’t pray is not yet a true Christian.
There is No Duty in Religion So Neglected as Private Prayer
Sadly, in Ryle’s day so in ours: many profess Christianity, but demonstrate little of its power. There are those who locate themselves in a corporate church, but who do not give themselves to private prayer.
Why is this? In light of the last point, it may be that many professing Christians are not really born again. But it may also have another reason: “[Prayer] is one of those private transactions between God and our souls which no eye sees, and therefore one which there is every temptation to pass over an leave undone.” It is also the case that prayer is not usually fashionable, so many are tempted to neglect it. Some neglect prayer because they’ve allowed sin to grow unchecked in their souls. “Praying and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin, or sin will choke prayer.” Genuine Christians, therefore, cannot follow this trend but must follow the New Testament injunction: deovote yourselves to prayer (Col 4:2).
Scripture Greatly Encourages Prayer
God has given us everything to make prayer easy. Through the sacrifice of his Son, God has opened his throne room to all, no matter how sinful or unworthy. He has provided an advocate and intercessor in the Lord Jesus who takes our prayers to his Father. The Holy Spirit is always ready to help us pray, and even prays for us when we are unsure how to pray.
Beyond this divine assistance from the Trinity, God has also given us many lavish promises to encourage us. If we knock, the door will be opened (Matt 7:7, 8). If we ask in Jesus’ name, we will be answered (John 14:13, 14).
Along with promises, we also have examples of answered prayer in the Scriptures. How many saints accomplished the seemingly impossible through prayer? Moses opened the Red Sea and brought water from a Rock through prayer. Elijah brought fire from heaven with prayer. Prayer overthrew the army of Sennacherib. “Well might Mary, Queen of Scots, say, ‘I fear John Knox’s prayers more than an army of ten thousand men.'”
Diligence in Prayer is the Secret of Eminent Holiness
Among those who are trusting the same Christ, fighting the same fight, and endeavoring to serve the same Lord, there are some, Ryle observes, who seem “never to get on from the time of their conversion.” They seem to forever walk in spiritual childishness, hounded by the same sins, plagued by the same immaturity as their younger years.
But there are those Christians who seem “always to be getting on” with their Christian life. They are growing, thriving, and bearing fruit. “They not only do well, but they are unwearied in their well-doing.” What accounts for the difference?
I believe that spiritual, as well as natural, greatness depends far more on the use of means within everybody’s reach, than on anything else. Of course I do not say we have a right to expect a miraculous grant of intellectual gifts. But this I do say, that when a man is once converted to God, whether he shall be eminently holy or not depends chiefly on his own diligence in the use of God’s appointed means. And I assert confidently, that the principle means by which most believers have become great in the church of Christ is the habit of diligence private prayer.
The difference between believers who are making progress in holiness and those who are not, according to Ryle, is devotion to private prayer. Again, he points us to the saints in the Scriptures and saints throughout history. Those who have made noteworthy spiritual attaintments have always been people of prayer.
Prayerlessness is One Great Cause of Backsliding
In contrast to the previous point, it is the neglect of prayer can can lead to spiritual regression. “Now what is the cause of most backsliding?” Ryle wonders. “I believe, as a general rule, one of the chief cases is neglect of private prayer.”
Bible 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 private prayer 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 him to have a tremendous fall.
The closet gives us insight into a man’s spiritual life like no other place. “We may be very sure that men 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.” Diligence and faithfulness in prayer guards us from drifting away from Christ.
Prayer is one of the Best Receipts of Happiness and Contentment
When going through a valley of sorrow, Ryle reminds us that there is no better means of cheerfulness than taking everything to God in prayer. This instruction is plain in the Scriptures (Ps 150:15; Ps 55:22; Phil 4:6-7; James 5:13). Ryle sweetly summons us to seek the Lord in prayer by remembering the friend we have in Christ:
There is a friend ever waiting to help us, if we will only unbosom to him our sorrow—a friend who pitied the poor, and sick, and sorrowful, when he was upon earth—a friend who knows the heart of a man, for he lived thirty years as a man among us—a friend who can weep with the weepers, for he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief—a friend who is able to help us, for there nver was earthly pain he could not cure, That friend is Jesus Christ. The way to be happy is to be always opening our hearts to him.
Ryle continues, “Jesus can make those happy who trust him and call on him whatever be their outward condition.” If we would be content, we must go to the Lord regularly in prayer.
A Few Closing Encouragements
Ryle closes his chapter by urging those who are presently without Christ to go to him immediately in prayer and cry out for salvation. It is only through salvation and a new heart that a person can truly carry out the New Testament’s exhortations to pray.
To those who are in Christ and do pray, Ryle ends with a few practical words.
First, we must pray in reverence and humility, praying from the heart and seeking the direct help of the Spirit in our prayers. Mere rote and form praying will do little spiritual good for the Christian.
We must make prayer the “regular business of life,” which will require some amount of discipline, scheduling, and set regularity. When we find it difficult, we must persevere in prayer. Earnestness in prayer is vital, but earnestness has little to do with raising our voices. Rather, our prayers should be “hearty, and fervent, and warm.”
Additionally, our prayers will be characterized by earnestness as we pray with faith, trusting the Lord’s promises and asking boldly. Our prayers should also be “full.” This means that we are not satisfied with brief, quick, haphazard prayers.
Nothing is more common than to hear believers complaining that they do not get on. They tell us that they do not grow in grace, as they could desire. Is it not rather to be suspected that many have quite as much grace as they ask for? It is not the true account of many, that they have little, because they ask little? The cause of their weakness is is to be found in their own stunted, dwarfish, clipped, contracted, hurried, little, narrow, diminutive prayers. They have not because they ask not.
We should be particular in prayer—making specific requests and not satisfying ourselves with generic appeals. Making intercession for others will help us to avoid selfishness, and thankfulness will give God his due praise for all the goodness he has shown us.
Finally, we must be watchful over our prayers and be aware of what company encourages or discourages your communion with God.
Mark well the places, and soceity, and companions, that unhinge your hearts for communion with God, and make your prayers drive heavily. There be on your guard. Observe narrowly what friends and what employments leave your soul in the most spiritual frame and most ready to speak with God.
Conclusion
God has given us a great duty and a great privilege. We are called to enter regularly into his throneroom with faith, thanksgiving, and our requests. Our Father is ready to answer us and bless us. May we take encouragement from Scripture and from a faithful saint to rekindle our devotion to prayer.
