This is an excerpt from J.C. Ryle’s, A Call to Prayer  - 12 exhortations on prayer 

“I commend to you the importance of… 

1.       Reverence and humility in prayer.

Let us never forget what we are, and what a solemn thing it is to speak with God.  Let us beware of rushing into his presence with carelessness and levity.  Let is say to ourselves: ‘I am on holy ground. This is no other than the gate of heaven. If I do not mean what I say, I am trifling with God. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.’ 

2.       Praying spiritually. 

We should labor always to have the direct help of the Spirit in our prayers and beware above all things of formality…If we can tell our doctors the state of our bodies without a book, we ought to be able to tell the state of our souls to God.  I have no objection to a man using crutches when he is first recovering from a broken limb.  It is better to use crutches than not to walk at all.  But if I saw him all his life on crutches, I should not think it a matter for congratulation.  I should like to see him strong enough to throw his crutches away. 

3.       Making prayer a regular business of life.

I say, that it is essential to your soul’s health to make praying a part of the business of every twenty four hours in your life.  Just as you allot time to eating, sleeping, and business, so also allot time to prayer.  Choose your own hours and seasons.  At the very least, speak with God in the morning, before you speak with the world; and speak with God at night, after you have done with the world.  But settle it in your minds, that prayer is one of the great things of every day.  Do not drive it into a corner. Do not give it the scraps and parings of your duty.  Whatever else you make a business of, make a business of prayer. 

4.       Perseverance in prayer.

Once having begun the habit, never give up…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.  Paul said, ‘Continue in prayer’, and ‘Pray without ceasing.’  He did not mean that men should be always on their knees, but he did mean that men should be, like the continual burnt offering, steadily persevered in every day…Never forget that you may tie together morning and evening devotions, by an endless chain of short ejaculatory prayers throughout the day. 

5.       Earnestness in prayer.

It is not necessary that a man should shout, or scream, or be very loud, in order to prove that he is in earnest.  But 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.  It is the ‘effectual, fervent’ prayer that ‘availeth much’.  This is the lesson that is taught us by the expressions used in Scripture about prayer.  It is called, ‘crying, knocking, wrestling, labouring, striving.’ 

6.       Praying 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…Faith is to prayer what the feather is to the arrow: without it prayer will not hit the mark.  We should cultivate the habit of pleading promises in our prayers.  We should take with us some promise, and say, ‘Lord, here is thine own word pledged.  Do for us as thou hast said.’  This was the habit of Jacob and Moses and David.  The 119^th Psalm is full of things asked, ‘according to thy word.’

7.       Boldness in prayer.

There is an unseemly familiarity in some men’s prayers which I cannot praise.  But there is such a thing as a holy boldness, which is exceedingly to be desired.  I mean such a boldness as that of Moses, when he pleads with God not to destroy Israel…We do not plead as often as we might, ‘Lord are we not thine own people?  Is it not for thy glory that we should be sanctified?  Is it not for thy honour that thy gospel should increase?’ 

8.       Fullness in prayer.

I do not forget that our Lord warns us against the example of the Pharisees, who, for pretence, made long prayers; and commands us when we pray not to use vain repetitions.  But I cannot forget, on the other hand, that he has given his own sanction to large and long devotions by continuing all night in prayer to God…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?  Is it not the true account of many, that they have little, because they ask little?  The cause of their weakness is to be found in their own stunted, dwarfish, clipped, contracted, hurried, narrow, diminutive prayers. 

9.       Particularity in prayer.

We ought not to be content with great general petitions.  We ought to specify our wants before the throne of grace.  It should not be enough to confess we are sinners; we should name the sins of which our conscience tells us we are most guilty.  It should not be enough to ask for holiness; we should name the graces in which we feel most deficient.  It should not be enough to tell the Lord we are in trouble; we should describe our trouble and all its peculiarities…Christ is the true Bridegroom of the soul, the true Physician of the heart, the real father of all his people.  Let us show that we feel this by being unreserved in our communications with him.  Let us hide no secrets from him.  Let us tell him all our hearts. 

10.   Intercession in our prayers.

We should try to bear in our hearts the whole world, the heathen, the Jews, the Roman Catholics, the body of true believers, the professing Protestant churches, the country in which we live, the congregation to which we belong, the household in which we sojourn, the friends and relations we are connected with.  For each and all of these we should plead.  This is the highest charity.  He loves we best who loves me in his prayers…This is for our soul’s health.  It enlarges our sympathies and expands our hearts.  This is for the benefit of the church.  The wheels of all machinery for extending the gospel are moved with prayer.  They do as much for the Lord’s cause who intercede like Moses on the mount, as they do who fight like Joshua in the thick of the battle.  This is to be like Christ.  He bears the names of his people, as their High Priest, before the Father. 

11.   Thankfulness in prayer.

Surely we should never open our lips in prayer without blessing God for that free grace by which we live, and for that lovingkindness which endureth forever. 

12.   Watchfulness over your prayers.

Prayer is that point in religion at which you must be most of all on your guard.  Here it is that true religion begins; here it flourishes, and here it decays.  Tell me what a man’s prayers are, and I will soon tell you the state of his soul…Oh, let us keep an eye continually upon our private devotions.  Here is the pith and marrow of our practical Christianity.  Sermons and books and tracts, and committee meetings and the company of good men, are all good in their way, but they will never make up for the neglect of private prayer.

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