Calvin At Prayer

I have found John Calvin to be the best writer on Christianity I know. He is so comprehensive in his handling of any subject. Many authors today will deal with a dozen aspects of a subject, after their introduction they devote a chapter to each aspect. These chapters are often well padded with cute examples and heartwarming antidotes. – Calvin deals with more than twenty-five aspects of a subject in a single section of the Institutes. He seems discontent until he as explored his subject from every side and addressed every possible challenge to his thesis. The Third book of the Institutes is the one I keep re-reading. It is generally about Christian Living, especially the nature of faith. 

Calvin sets forth four rules of prayer. At first he says that all four are necessary to faithful prayer, but later concedes that if one is present, God, in his mercy, will attend it. The first rule is that the mind ought to be attentive solely to God without distraction. It is what he calls a profound reverence for God, with even a kind of awestruck fear. The second rule is the one that Calvin says even qualifies non-Christians to be heard by God. It is a deep sense of wanting. “I need thee every hour, every hour I need thee. Bless me now my Savior, I come to Thee.” “Out of the depths I cry to Thee.” The third rule of prayer is the “suppression of all pride.” “God turns away the proud.” “A broken and contrite heart He will not despise.” The fourth rule is the presence of a “kind of confidence” or as he puts it in another place, “a serious conviction of our misery, joined by a sure hope” in God’s desire to hear us.

He deals very well with one of my besetting questions. Why would a timeless, infinite Being desire our information? Does not such a God know our very thought, and every event of our lives from all eternity and to all eternity? Calvin answers me two ways. First, he shows through scripture, that consistently and repeatedly God calls you to pray. Second, Jesus, the highest revelation of God in human form, prays to the Father with sincerity and even, at times, through tears of anguish.

While our prayers can never change the course of Providence, continuously talking to our Father, through His Son and in the Spirit opens our eyes to the working of God in, through, and around us. Prayer imparts both faith and grace. For me, prayer has a sacramental quality.