I Want to Have a Diligent Soul

If I want to grow in grace and have more hope, I must seek more diligence about means of grace.  

It is vain to suppose that my hope is not dependent in any sense on the pains I take in the use of God's appointed ordinances.  It is dependent, and that to a very great extent.  God has wisely ordered it so that if I am a lazy Christian, I will seldom enjoy any assurance of my own acceptance.  

He tells me that I must labor and strive, and work, to make my calling and election sure.  Oh! that I would remember this, and lay it to heart.  

I often can be very lazy in my manner of using means.  I know little of David's spirit when he said, "My soul longs and faints for the courts of the house of my God."  

I do not give much private prayer before and after sermons.  Yet, I remember that hearing alone is not everything: when all is said in the pulpit, only half the work is done.  

My Bible is not much read as it should be.  Like many believers, I often possess a contented ignorance of Scripture.  

My private prayer is not often made a business of as it should be.  I am often satisfied to get up from my knees without having really seen or heard anything of God and His Christ.  

And all this is wrong; It is the diligent soul that enjoys lively hope.

Adapted Excerpt From Startling Questions by J.C. Ryle