My God and My Country

Of Prayer Part One

by John Calvin Translated by Henry Beveridge - 1845

Prefaced and Edited by Dr. Riktor Von Zhades

Preface
Brethren:

It behooves us to continually have communication with our Father. It is not, as some might suggest to be a waste of time as He already knows our needs and will gladly provide them for us. Nay, it is because He wants to be in commune with us, not for His sake but for ours. It is for our joy, and to be as He is, and as such to emulate the Father, one must speak with Him.

Likewise when we pray, we demonstrate our trust in Him. To know that they will indeed be answered, and said answer will be the best decision for us. Remember that the expectation of answered prayer is all we ask of Him. His answers will be forthcoming, perhaps immediately, perhaps later onward, but they will be answered. Such is the nature of our Father who wishes us to seek Him, in all things, and in all things seek Him in prayer. - Dr. Riktor Von Zhades - Disciple in the service of our Lord, Christ Jesus.

[In every era throughout history], we can clearly see how completely destitute man is of all good, how devoid of every means of procuring his own salvation. Hence, if he would obtain succour in his necessity, he must go beyond himself, and procure it in some other quarter. It has farther been shown that the Lord kindly and spontaneously manifests himself in Christ, in whom he offers all happiness for our misery, all abundance for our want, opening up the treasures of heaven to us, so that we may turn with full faith to his beloved Son, depend upon him with full expectation, rest in him, and cleave to him with full hope. This, indeed, is that secret and hidden philosophy which cannot be learned by syllogisms: a philosophy thoroughly understood by those whose eyes God has so opened as to see light in his light (Read Psalm 36:9). But after we have learned by faith to know that whatever is necessary for us or defective in us is supplied in God and in our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom it hath pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell, that we may thence draw as from an inexhaustible fountain, it remains for us to seek and in prayer implore of him what we have learned to be in him. To know God as the sovereign disposer of all good, inviting us to present our requests, and yet not to approach or ask of him, were so far from availing us, that it were just as if one told of a treasure were to allow it to remain buried in the ground [Read Matthew 13:43-45]. Hence the Apostle, to show that a faith unaccompanied with prayer to God cannot be genuine, states this to be the order: As faith springs from the Gospel, so by faith our hearts are framed to call upon the name of God (Read Romans 10:14). And this is the very thing which he had expressed some time before, viz., that the Spirit of adoption, which seals the testimony of the Gospel on our hearts, gives us courage to make our requests known unto God, calls forth groanings which cannot be uttered, and enables us to cry, Abba, Father (Read Romans 8:26).

To prayer, then, are we indebted for penetrating to those riches which are treasured up for us with our heavenly Father, [ Read Matthew 6:19-21]. For there is a kind of intercourse between God and men, by which, having entered the upper sanctuary¹, they appear before Him and appeal to his promises, that when necessity requires they may learn by experiences that what they believed merely on the authority of his word was not in vain. Accordingly, we see that nothing is set before us as an object of expectation from the Lord which we are not enjoined to ask of Him in prayer, so true it is that prayer digs up those treasures which the Gospel of our Lord discovers to the eye of faith. The necessity and utility of this exercise of prayer no words can sufficiently express. Assuredly it is not without cause our heavenly Father declares that our only safety is in calling upon his name, since by it we invoke the presence of his providence to watch over our interests, of his power to sustain us when weak and almost fainting, of his goodness to receive us into favour, though miserably loaded with sin; in fine, call upon him to manifest himself to us in all his perfections. Hence, admirable peace and tranquillity are given to our consciences; for the straits by which we were pressed being laid before the Lord, we rest fully satisfied with the assurance that none of our evils are unknown to him, and that he is both able and willing to make the best provision for us.

1 Editor’s thought - That we may now enter into the holy of holies without the need of a priest to speak on our behalf, for we already have a high priest, that has sacrificed Himself on our behalf, and as such has declared us to be righteous to the Father, by that sacrifice. 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. - Hebrews 4:15-16