A Place in My Heart For Everything But God Right Now

I ought to be exceedingly afraid. Am I one of them?

If Bible words mean anything, 

• Have I not yet been converted and born again?
• Am I not justified? 
• Am I not sanctified? 
• Do I not have the Spirit?
• Do I have no faith?
• Do I have no grace? 

Are my sins not forgiven?

• Is my heart not changed? 
• Am I not ready to die?
• Am I not meet for heaven? 
• Am I neither godly, nor righteous, nor a saint? 
• If so, Bible words mean nothing at all to me.

Am I to all appearances...

• thinking no more about my soul than the beasts that perish? 
• There is nothing to show that they think of the life to come 
• any more than the horse and ox, which have no understanding. 

Is my treasure all on earth?

• Are my good things plainly all on this side of the grave? 
• Is my attention swallowed up by the perishable things of time?
• Meat, drink, and clothing,—
• money, houses, and land,—
• business, pleasure, or politics,—
• marrying, reading, or company;—
• Are these the kind of things which fill my heart? 

Do I live as if there were no such book as the Bible? 

• Do I go on as if resurrection and eternal judgment were not true, 
• but a lie? 

As to grace, and conversion, and justification, and holiness,—

• are they things I care not for;—
• are they words and names I am either ignorant of, or despise? 

I am going to die. 

• I am going to be judged. 
• Yet, do I seem to be even more hardened than the devil? 
• Do I appear neither to believe nor tremble?
• What a horrible state this is for my immortal soul to be in! 
• But oh! how common!

Do I have a form of religion that is, after all, nothing but a form? 

• Do I profess and call myself a Christian? 
• Do I go to a place of worship on Sunday? 
• But when I have said that, have I said all? 

Where is the Christianity of the New Testament to be seen in my life? 

• Nowhere at all? 
• Is sin plainly not considered my worst enemy?
• nor the Lord Jesus my best friend,—
• nor the will of God my rule of life,—
• nor salvation the great end of my existence? 

Does the spirit of slumber keep possession of my heart, 

• and am I at ease, self-satisfied, and content? 
• Am I in a Laodicean frame of mind, 
• and imagine I have enough Christianity?

God speaks to me continually, 

• by mercies,—by afflictions,—by sermons; but will I not hear? 
• Jesus knocks at the door of my heart, but will I not open? 

When I am told of death and eternity, 

• do I remain unconcerned? 

When I am warned against the love of the world, 

• do I plunge into it week after week without shame? 

When I hear of Christ coming upon earth to die for sinners, 

• do I go away unmoved? 

Does there seem to be a place in my heart for everything but God;

• —room for business,
• —room for pleasures,
• —room for trifling,
• —room for sin,
• —room for the devil,
• —room for the world: 

But, like the inn at Bethlehem, 

• is there no room for Him who made me?
• —no admission for Jesus, the Spirit, and the Word? 
• What a horrible condition of things this is! 
• But, how common!

To Be Continued...

Adapted Excerpt From

Startling Questions

J. C. Ryle