Some Things You Just Have To Do Yourself

I have been reading JC Ryle's little booklet, 'A Call to Prayer." It is a challenging essay, written in a previous century, but just as applicable to today's believer. One thing that Ryle says that really struck me was this;

No man can eat, drink or sleep by proxy. No man can get the alphabet learned for him by
another. All these are things which everybody must do for himself, or they will not be
done at all.

Just as it is with the mind and body, so it is with the soul. There are certain things
absolutely needful to the soul's health and well-being. Each must attend to these things
for himself.

Each must attend to these things for himself. It suddenly occured to me why it is that so many Christians never grow. One can go to church every Sunday; one can listen to great preaching and enjoy wonderful worship; one can join a homegroup and attend every week, and still never grow as a Christian. Why? Because all these things are done for you and to you. Someone else preaches, someone else leads the worship and plays the music, and someone else runs the Bible study. But there are other things, very important other things, that one must do for oneself. No-one else can do our praying for us; read, memorise and apply Scripture to the particulars of our life for us. And there-in lies the rub. There are far too many Christians who hover around in the hinter land that is half-hearted commitment, hoping that someone or something else will make them spiritual. But it doesn't work like that. No-one else can do holiness and commitment for us; not the Pastor, not the deacons, not the friend that sits next to us on Sunday--Each must attend to these things for himself.