This past year, I have endeavored to grow in my life of prayer. Last October, I read through a brief pamphlet by J. C. Ryle entitled A Call to Prayer. Ryle is a 19th century Anglican Bishop most famous for his book Holiness.
Here are twelve practical points with which Ryle concludes this excellent little book. I’d love to hear if you have your own 21st century practical points on prayer after reading Ryle’s insights.
- Pray with reverence and humility: “Let us beware of rushing into His presence with carelessness and levity. Let us say to ourselves: ‘I am on holy ground'” (25).
- Pray spiritually: “We should labor always to have the direct help of the Spirit in our prayers, and beware above all things of formality” (25).
- Pray as a regular business of life: “Just as you allot time to eating, sleeping, and business, so also allot time to prayer. Choose your own hours and seasons” (26).
- Pray with perseverance: “I do not maintain that prayers should always be of the same length; but I do say, let no excuse make you give up prayer” (27).
- Pray with earnestness: “It is desirable that we should be hearty and fervent and warm, and ask as if we were really interested in what we were doing….how unlike is this to many of our supplications! How tame and lukewarm they seem by comparison” (27-28).
- Pray with faith: “We should endeavor to believe that our prayers are heard, and that if we ask things according to God’s will, we shall be answered” (28).
- Pray with boldness: We should be like Moses (Exodus 32:12) and Joshua (Joshua 7:9) who asked great things of God.
- Pray with fulness: “I am afraid the private devotions of many are most painfully scanty and limited; just enough to prove they are alive and no more. They really seem to want little from God” (30).
- Pray particularly: “We ought not to be content with great general petitions. We ought to specify our wants before the throne of grace” (31).
- Pray as intercession: “We should stir ourselves up to name other names besides our own before the throne of grace” (31).
- Pray with thankfulness: “We must cherish a spirit of praise” (33).
- Pray with watchfulness over our prayers: “Prayer is the spiritual pulse….By this we may know whether it is fair or foul with our hearts” (33).
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Matthew Erickson 
Have you read any EM Bounds? (I know it is yet another book on prayer, but he was a great writer on prayer from around the civil war to the turn of the 20th century).
Thanks for the feedback, Adam! It’s great to hear from you.
Yes, I really enjoy Bounds’ writing. Lyle Dorsett turned me on to him in college and I have read Dorsett’s brief biography on him aptly entitled E.M. Bounds: Man of Prayer.
The only things that rubs me the wrong way about Bounds is that he at times creates a superhuman view of prayer that is not helpful for the average person.
I’m not sure if that makes sense to you or not, Adam. What do you think about Bounds?
I agree with you. It is hard to compare yourself to someone that got up at 4 AM for decades to pray. The other problem with his writing is that it can be pretty repetitive.
Have you ever been to a pastor’s prayer summit?
Nope. Don’t know much about a pastor’s prayer summit. Tell me more.
I am not a pray by myself for hours a day person. I am more energized by praying with people. And participating in a Pastor’s prayer summit was the best thing that I have done as a model for group prayer. It is a 3 or 4 day retreat with no other agenda other than seeking after God. It is very powerful among a group from a small geography that you can know one another going out from there. But the basic style and principles of worship based prayer are transferable to a local church and church prayer meetings. I will look around and see if there is a prayer summit in your area.
Sounds like a great thing, Adam. I look forward to hearing from you about it.