The Chief Exercise of Faith

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. MATTHEW 7:7

The longest chapter in the whole of the Institutes is not about predestination, or the sacraments, or the church. It is about prayer. Institutes 3.20 runs to more than fifty sections, and its title tells us how Calvin thought of it: prayer is the chief exercise of faith, by which we daily receive God’s benefits. For a man remembered chiefly as a systematic theologian, that is worth noticing. His theology was meant to end on its knees.

Digging up the treasure

Calvin begins by drawing together everything he has said so far. We have learned that we are empty and destitute of every good, and that all our help is in God, who has offered it to us freely in Christ. What is left, he says, is to seek in Him and ask of Him what we have learned is in Him. It is by prayer, he says, that we reach those riches which are laid up for us with the heavenly Father. He compares it to digging up treasure that the gospel has pointed out to us and that faith has seen (Institutes 3.20.2). To know of a treasure and never dig for it is foolish. To believe God’s promises and never pray is the same.

And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us. 1 JOHN 5:14

Why pray if God knows?

Calvin raises the obvious objection himself. If God already knows what we need, and has decreed what He will do, why should we pray? His answer (Institutes 3.20.3) is that God ordained prayer not for His sake but for ours. He lists the reasons. Prayer kindles in our hearts a zealous desire to seek, love and serve God. It trains us to bring every wish before Him, so that we desire nothing we would be ashamed to show Him. It prepares us to receive His gifts with thanks, because we know they came in answer. It makes us meditate on His kindness when we see our prayers answered. And it confirms His providence to us, as we learn that He not only promises never to fail us but actually hears and helps.

Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. ISAIAH 65:24

This is a beautiful answer, and it removes the fear that prayer is pointless. God does not need informing. We need forming. Prayer is the school in which faith is trained.

Four rules for prayer

Calvin gives four rules for right prayer (Institutes 3.20.4–14), and they are worth learning by heart.

The first is reverence. We must come to God with minds set free from earthly cares, as those who are speaking to the King of heaven. Calvin warns against prayer that is careless, distracted or irreverent, as if we were talking to an equal.

The second is a sincere sense of need, joined with repentance. We must truly feel our lack and truly want what we ask. Many prayers, Calvin says, are recited as a mere duty, with no real desire behind them. He also insists that we must not come to God while clinging to sins we mean to keep.

The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. PSALM 145:18

The third is humility, which gives up all confidence in ourselves. We must come not trusting our own worthiness but pleading only God’s mercy. The saints of Scripture, even the holiest, came as beggars.

The fourth is confident hope. Humble as we are, we must pray in the firm expectation that we will be heard. Calvin says these two, a humbling sense of our unworthiness and a bold confidence in God’s promise, belong together. Without the first, prayer is proud. Without the second, it is not prayer at all, but only doubt.

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. HEBREWS 4:16

In the name of Christ

Behind all four rules stands the Mediator. Calvin insists that we can come to God only in the name of Christ. Since no one is worthy to present himself to God, the heavenly Father has given us His Son to be our advocate, so that we may come in confidence. He speaks sharply against praying to the saints, which he believed took from Christ the honour that is His alone (Institutes 3.20.21–27). His sermon God Will Have All Men to Be Saved presses the same point from the one text: there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men.

In his sermon on All Scripture Calvin makes the connection clear: our confidence to call upon God comes from knowing that He will not cast us off when we come in the name of Him who is appointed our advocate.

Our Father

A large part of Calvin’s chapter is a patient exposition of the Lord’s Prayer, which he calls the pattern given us by Christ (Institutes 3.20.34–49). He notices, as many have, that it begins with Our Father. The name Father, he says, is meant to banish all fear and fill our hearts with confidence. No human father could love his child as God loves us. And the word our reminds us that we pray as members of one family, and must pray for others as for ourselves.

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. MATTHEW 6:9

He also says that the first three petitions are given to God’s glory, and the last three to our needs, and that we must learn to seek His glory first.

Perseverance and set times

Finally, Calvin urges both persistence and order. We must not give up if God seems slow to answer; sometimes He delays to exercise our faith. And though we should pray without ceasing, he recommends that believers set apart particular times for prayer — on rising, before work, at meals, and before sleep — so that the habit is not left to chance (Institutes 3.20.50). The practice of his own lectures shows that he meant it. At the end of each lecture on the prophets he prayed aloud, briefly and simply, and his hearers took down the prayers so that many survive.

Pray without ceasing. 1 THESSALONIANS 5:17

A caution

Calvin’s rules can sound daunting, as if no prayer could ever meet them. He anticipates this. God, he says, does not reject prayers because of their weakness, if they are sincere; He pardons the faults in them. No one has ever prayed perfectly. The rules are a guide, not a barrier. The weakest cry for help, made in the name of Christ, is heard.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Read Institutes 3.20 over several weeks, a few sections at a time, and pray after each reading.

2. Set definite times for prayer this week — morning, midday and evening — and keep them.

3. Before you pray next, pause long enough to remember to whom you are speaking.

4. Pray the Lord’s Prayer slowly, one petition a day, letting each one shape what you ask for.

5. Name one prayer you have given up on. Take it up again, trusting that God hears and may be exercising your faith by delay.

A PRAYER

Our Father in heaven, You have laid up treasures for me in Christ, and I have been too lazy to seek them.

Teach me to pray with reverence, with a true sense of my need, with humility, and with confident hope.

I come in the name of Jesus, my only Mediator and Advocate, not trusting anything in myself.

Hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done. Hear me, and make me persevere. Amen.