Book Review: Do You Pray? - Highly Recommend

What a powerful pamphlet! J. C. Ryle (1816-1900) was Bishop of Liverpool. His passion for prayer is inspiring! His simple question is, "Do you pray?" If not, why not? If so, how so? I would have loved to have held this pamphlet in hand, but I settled for listening to it in audio form available through Hoopla. I discovered one available from Christian Books.

The author argues passionately for the power of prayer. I wonder how much we believe in the power of prayer. We read about miracles wrought by prayer in the Bible, yet fail to trust our own prayers will change the lives of those we love. His words are convicting and comforting. The author argues that backsliding begins with the neglect of private prayer. He encourages the reader to take everything to God in prayer. He addresses the prayerless reader, "Who and what are you that you will not ask anything of God?"

The above quote (found on Facebook, by worshipblog) is not from Ryle, but illustrates the power of prayer!

Finally, Ryle launches into specifics of how we should pray. He articulates the importance of reverence and humility, earnestness and faith in prayer, the importance of praying regularly, the importance of boldness, fullness, and particularity in prayer, and the importance of intercessory prayer. I found so many helpful nuggets of truth: "Never think that time is wasted which is given to God.... A Christian never finds he is the loser in the long run by persevering in prayer." "Faith is to prayer what the feather is to the arrow. Without it, prayer will not hit the mark." If the batteries driving your prayer life are flagging, this book will jump-start your petitions to a God who loves hearing from His children and longs to meet their needs.