J C Ryle
We learn in these verses that believers must ask much in prayer. It is written: “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full”.
We may well believe that, up to this time, the disciples had never realised their Master’s full dignity. They had certainly never understood that He was the one Mediator between God and man, in whose name and for whose sake they were to put up their prayers. Here they are distinctly told that, from now on, they are to ask in His name. Nor can we doubt that the Lord would have all His people, in every age, understand that the secret of comfort following His ascension is to be instant in prayer. He would have them know that, if they cannot see Him with their bodily eyes any longer, they can talk with Him and, through Him, have special access to God. “Ask and ye shall receive,” He proclaims to all His people in every age; “that your joy may be full.”
Let the lesson sink down deeply into our hearts. Of all the list of Christian duties, none has such abounding encouragement as prayer. It is a duty which
1Taken, with editing, from Expository Thoughts on John, vol 3. Here are some of Ryle’s comments on John 16:16-24.
concerns all. High and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearned – all must pray. It is a duty for which all are accountable. All cannot read, or hear, or sing; but all who have the spirit of adoption can pray. Above all, it is a duty in which everything depends on the heart and motive within. Our words may be feeble and ill-chosen, and our language broken and ungrammatical, and not worthy to be written down. But if the heart is right, that does not matter. He that sits in heaven can spell out the meaning of every petition sent up in the name of Jesus, and can make the asker know and feel that he receives.
If we know these things, happy are we if we do them. Let prayer in the name of Jesus be a daily habit with us every morning and evening of our lives. Keeping up that habit, we shall find strength for duty, comfort in trouble, guidance in perplexity, hope in sickness, and support in death. Faithful is He that promised, “Your joy shall be full”. And He will keep His word, if we ask in prayer.