Want to Know the Guaranteed Way to Reach God in Prayer

What is True Prayer?

What is True Prayer? Are you going through the motions? Or are you really reaching God in prayer? Do you want to know the guaranteed way to reach God in true prayer? Keep reading!

Consistency in Prayer is vital to your spiritual life! Here is a Series to Encourage you! Your Home For God
Consistency in Prayer is vital to your spiritual life! Here is a Series to Encourage you! Your Home For God

In our morning devotional time as a family, my husband, Jerry, challenged us by reading from J. C. Ryle’s, “Do You Pray?” a number of years ago. Since then, I have read it over, again and again. It never loses its power to impact my spiritual life and set it on fire! I pray it will do the same for you!

This is week 2 of 5 weeks in which every Tuesday and Thursday, I will be posting an excerpt from this work, entitled “Do You Pray?” by J. C. Ryle, which we read together as a family. It challenged me deeply.  I hope it will do the same for you. It’s hitting pretty close to home, and getting more convicting. But don’t quit reading–hang in there. What is God trying to say to you?

Read All the Posts in This Series on Prioritizing Your Spiritual Life,

“Do You Pray,” by J. C. Ryle:

Part 3 of Prioritizing Your Spiritual Life (“Do You Pray?”) Want to Know the Guaranteed Way to Reach God in True Prayer?

by J. C. Ryle

“I ask whether you pray, because there is no duty in religion so neglected as private prayer.”

Do You Privately Pray

“We live in days of abounding religious profession.  There are more places of public worship now than there ever were before.  There are more persons attending them than there ever were before. And yet in spite of all this public religion, I believe there is a vast neglect of private prayer.”

Consistency in Prayer is vital to your spiritual life! Here is a Series to Encourage you! Your Home For God
Consistency in Prayer is vital to your spiritual life! Here is a Series to Encourage you! Your Home For God

Do You Spend Time In Your Prayer Closet

“It is one of those private transactions between God and our souls which no eye sees, and therefore one which men are tempted to pass over and leave undone.”

Recognize God Holds Our Life in His Hands

“I believe that thousands never utter a word of prayer at all.  They eat. They drink. They sleep. They rise. They go forth to their labor.  They return to their homes. They breathe God’s air. They see God’s sun. They walk on God’s earth.  They enjoy God’s mercies. They have dying bodies. They have judgment and eternity before them. But they never speak to God.

They live like the beasts that perish.  They behave like creatures without souls.  They have not one word to say to Him in whose hand are their life and breath, and all things, and from whose mouth they must one day receive their everlasting sentence.  How dreadful this seems; but if the secrets of men were only known, how common.”

True Prayer

“I believe there are tens of thousands whose prayers are nothing but a mere form, a set of words repeated by rote, without a thought about their meaning.”

Consistency in Prayer is vital to your spiritual life! Here is a Series to Encourage you! Your Home For God
Consistency in Prayer is vital to your spiritual life! Here is a Series to Encourage you! Your Home For God

“Some say over a few hasty sentences picked up in the nursery when they were children.  Some content themselves with repeating the Creed, forgetting that there is not a request in it.  Some add the Lord’s Prayer, but without the slightest desire that its solemn petitions may be granted.

Many, even of those who use good forms, mutter their prayers after they have gotten into bed, or while they wash or dress in the morning.  Men may think what they please, but they may depend upon it that in the sight of God this is not praying.”

Are You Practicing True Prayer, Praying From the Heart

“Words said without heart are as utterly useless to our souls as the drum beating of the poor heathen before their idols.  Where there is no heart, there may be lip-work and tongue-work, but there is nothing that God listens to; there is no prayer.  Saul, I have no doubt, said many a long prayer before the Lord met him on the way to Damascus. But it was not till his heart was broken, that the Lord said, ‘He prayeth.’

Does this surprise you?  Listen to me, and I will show you that I am not speaking as I do without reason.  Do you think that my assertions are extravagant and unwarrantable? Give me your attention, and I will soon show you that I am only telling you the truth.”

Consistency in Prayer is vital to your spiritual life! Here is a Series to Encourage you! Your Home For God
Consistency in Prayer is vital to your spiritual life! Here is a Series to Encourage you! Your Home For God

Only Christians Desire True Prayer

“Have you forgotten that it is not natural to any one to pray?  ‘The carnal mind is enmity against God.’ The desire of man’s heart is to get far away from God, and have nothing to do with him.  His feeling towards him is not love, but fear. Why then should a man pray when he has no real sense of sin, no real feeling of spiritual wants, no thorough belief in unseen things, no desire after holiness and heaven?  Of all these things the vast majority of men know and feel nothing. The multitude walk in the broad way. I cannot forget this. Therefore I say boldly, I believe that few pray.”

Few People Really Pray

“Have you forgotten that it is not fashionable to pray?  It is one of the things that many would be rather ashamed to own.  There are hundreds who would sooner storm a breach, or lead a forlorn hope, than confess publicly that they make a habit of prayer.  There are thousands who, if obliged to sleep in the same room with a stranger, would lie down in bed without a prayer.”

I believe there are tens of thousands whose prayers are nothing but a mere form, a set of words repeated by rote, without a thought about their meaning.

J. C. Ryle

“To dress well, to go to theaters, to be thought clever and agreeable, all this is fashionable, but not to pray.  I cannot forget this. I cannot think a habit is common which so many seem ashamed to own. I believe that — few pray.”

Consistency in Prayer is vital to your spiritual life! Here is a Series to Encourage you! Your Home For God
Consistency in Prayer is vital to your spiritual life! Here is a Series to Encourage you! Your Home For God

If You Pray It Will Show In a Changed Life

“Have you forgotten the lives that many live?  Can we really believe that people are praying against sin night and day, when we see them plunging into it?

Can we suppose they pray against the world, when they are entirely absorbed and taken up with its pursuits?  Can we think they really ask God for grace to serve him, when they do not show the slightest desire to serve him at all?”

True Prayer and Sinning Don’t Live in The Same Heart

“Oh, no, it is plain as daylight that the great majority of men either ask nothing of God or do not mean what they say when they do ask, which is just the same thing.  Praying and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin, or sin will choke prayer. I cannot forget this. I look at men’s lives. I believe that few pray.”

Do You and God Talk Together Regularly

“Have you forgotten the deaths that many die?  How many, when they draw near death, seem entirely strangers to God.  Not only are they sadly ignorant of his gospel, but sadly wanting in the power of speaking to him.”

Consistency in Prayer is vital to your spiritual life! Here is a Series to Encourage you! Your Home For God
Consistency in Prayer is vital to your spiritual life! Here is a Series to Encourage you! Your Home For God

“There is a terrible awkwardness and shyness in their endeavors to approach him.  They seem to be taking up a fresh thing. They appear as if they wanted an introduction to God, and as if they had never talked with him before.”

A Dying Person Reveals Their Lack of True Prayer

“I remember having heard of a lady who was anxious to have a minister to visit her in her last illness.  She desired that he would pray with her. He asked her what he should pray for. She did not know, and could not tell.

Consistency in Prayer is vital to your spiritual life! Here is a Series to Encourage you! Your Home For God
Consistency in Prayer is vital to your spiritual life! Here is a Series to Encourage you! Your Home For God

She was utterly unable to name any one thing which she wished him to ask God for her soul.  All she seemed to want was the form of a minister’s prayers. I can quite understand this.

Death beds are great revealers of secrets.  I cannot forget what I have seen of sick and dying people.  This also leads me to believe that few pray.”

“Words said without heart are as utterly useless to our souls as the drum beating of the poor heathen before their idols.”

J. C. Ryle

Do You Have Real, True Prayer With God

“I cannot see your heart.  I do not know your private history in spiritual things.  But from what I see in the Bible and in the world I am certain I cannot ask you a more necessary question than that before you–Do you pray?”

Here are book recommendations that have changed my life and I think you’ll love them

Your Home For God, Anxious for Nothing button
Anxious For Nothing, by John MacArthur

Stress has become part of our daily lives. We worry about our jobs, our relationships, and our families. And while there’s no lack of remedies for anxiety, no solution seems to offer true peace of mind.

Your Home For God, Lies Women Believe
Lies Women Believe by Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Are you burned out, overwhelmed, angry, confused or fearful? These emotions are often the result of Satan’s lies. Nancy tackles many of the falsehoods that enslave Christian women. She does not promise your problems will go away, but confronts the lies with practical truths found in Scripture that will help you begin to “walk through the realities of life in freedom and true joy.”

Your Home For God, Keep a Quiet Heart
Keep a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot

When life gets too busy, too impersonal, and too much to handle, it’s time to turn to God for some peace and quiet. Keep a Quiet Heart is a unique collection of some of Elisabeth’s best work from her newsletter. More than 100 short passages offer a bit of relief from everyday life as they point the reader toward the everlasting love and peace of God.

Read All the Posts in This Series on Prioritizing Your Spiritual Life,

“Do You Pray,” by J. C. Ryle:

Have a Great Day Making Your Home For God!

Wendy Gunn helps Christian entrepreneurs embrace who God created them to be, find and fulfill their purpose, and achieve God's goals for them, through her courses and coaching.

Through my Coaching and Courses, I help Christians become who God uniquely created them to be, find and fulfill their purpose, and achieve His goals for their lives. My message at the core is: You were uniquely created by God for a purpose. Who did He create YOU to be, and what does He have for you to do? Book a call to find out how you can be Empowered To Achieve.​​

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Your Home for God, About-JC-Ryle

J.C. Ryle –  (1816-1900), first Anglican bishop of Liverpool

J.C. Ryle was a prolific writer, vigorous preacher, faithful pastor, husband (he was widowed three times) and the father to five children. He was thoroughly evangelical in his doctrine and uncompromising in his Biblical principles. After being in Pastoral ministry in England for 38 years, in 1880 (at age 64), Ryle became the first bishop of Liverpool, England, and remained there for 20 years. He retired in 1900 (at age 83) and died later that same year at age 84.

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