The Necessity of Difficulties

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

“It is a melancholy fact, that constant temporal prosperity, as a general rule, is injurious to a believer’s soul. We cannot stand it. Sickness, and losses, and crosses, and anxieties, and disappointments seem absolutely needful to keep us humble, watchful, and spiritual-minded.”

~ J.C. Ryle

Faithfulness and Holiness: The Witness of J.C. Ryle, “Growth”, [Wheaton: Crossway, 2002], 201.

Forsaking the World For Christ

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

True Christians must make up their minds to trouble in this world. Whether we are ministers or hearers, whether we teach or are taught, it makes little difference.

Discerning the True and the False Christian

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

How should you know who are true Christians, if following Christ was the way to be free from trouble? How should we discern the wheat from the chaff, if it were not for the winnowing of trial?

Peace Which Christ Gives

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

“‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth give I unto you.’ Peace is Christ’s peculiar gift: not money, not worldly ease, not temporal prosperity. These are at best very questionable possessions. They often do more harm than good to the soul.

The Ultimate Loss: Your Soul

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

The loss of the soul is the heaviest loss that can befall a man. The worst and most painful of diseases – the most distressing bankruptcy of fortune – the most disastrous shipwrecks – are a mere scratch of a pin compared to the loss of a soul.

In Our Dying Hour

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

“The day may come when after a long fight with disease, we shall feel that medicine can do no more, and that nothing remains but to die. Friends will be standing by, unable to help us. Hearing, eyesight, even the power of praying, will be fast failing us. The world and its shadows will be melting beneath our feet. Eternity, with its realities, will be looming large before our minds.

Persevering Through Trials

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Would you have perfect peace in life? Then lay hold on this doctrine of perseverance. Your trials may be many and great. Your cross may be very heavy. But the business of your soul is all conducted according to an “everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.” (2 Sam. 23:5.)

Sanctified Suffering by J.C. Ryle

Suffering is a part of the process by which the children of God are sanctified. They are chastened to wean them from the world, and make them partakers of God’s holiness.

Expecting the Trials of Life by J.C. Ryle

Trials, we must distinctly understand, are a part of the diet which all true Christians must expect. It is one of the means by which their grace is proved, and by which they find out what there is in themselves.

Suffering is the Diet of the Lord's Family

“All the sons of God take part in suffering with Christ. What says the Scripture? ‘If children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him.’ (Rom. 8:17.) All the children of God have a cross to carry.

Inward Peace

“To be without Christ is to be without peace. Every man has a conscience within him, which must be satisfied before he can be truly happy. So long as this conscience is asleep or half dead, so long, no doubt, he gets along pretty well.

Contentment Through Pain

If God has given His Son to die for us, let us beware of doubting His kindness and love in any painful providence of our daily life. Let us never suppose that He can give us anything that is not really for our good.

This is Meant to Make Me Grow

“Sicknesses and losses and crosses and anxieties and disappointments seem absolutely needful to keep us humble, watchful and spiritual–minded. They are as needful as the pruning knife to the vine and the refiner’s furnace to the gold.

Our Season of Probation

Let us count it no strange thing, if we have sufferings in this present time. It is a season of probation; we are yet at school.

Christ’s Pruning Knife in a Believer: Trials by J.C. Ryle

How would the great work of sanctification go on in a person if they had no trial? Trouble is often the only fire which will burn away the dross that clings to our hearts.

Do Not Be Surprised at Trials and Afflictions by J.C. Ryle

If we know anything of growth in grace and desire to know more, let us not be surprised if we have to go through much trial and affliction in this world.

Model Christ’s Patience in Afflictions by J.C. Ryle

Let us diligently follow the example of Christ’s patience in all the trials and afflictions of life, especially in those which may be brought upon us by religion.

Embracing Our Afflictions by J.C. Ryle

“If we are true Christians, we must not expect everything smooth in our journey to heaven. We must count it no strange thing, if we have to endure sicknesses, losses, bereavements, and disappointments, just like other people.

You Cannot Reach Paradise Without a Cross by J.C. Ryle

All the children of God have a cross to carry. They have trials, troubles, and afflictions to go through for the Gospel’s sake. They have trials from the world, trials from the flesh, and trials from the devil.

The Benefit of Storms

UPDATE: A new J.C. Ryle 365 Day Devotional has been released from Reformation Heritage Books. This devotional was taken from hundreds of J.C. Ryle's sermons. You can order the devotional HERE.

Your trials may be many and great. Your cross may be very heavy. But the business of your soul is all conducted according to an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.