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Lesson 16 Prayer Lord's Day 45 Prayer In the Heidelberg Catechism, prayer follows after the commandments. In the Bible, commandment and prayer are joined together. One example: "Thou hast commanded us to keep Thy precepts diligently. O that my ways were directed to keep Thy statutes!" (Psalm 119: 4-5). True Christians, who are regenerated and renewed by the Holy Spirit, constantly pray to the Lord to increase their daily living according to God's commandments. Prayer is indispensable to communion with God. In prayer, we may in a very confidential way have contact with God, and we may make known all our needs unto Him. At the same time, a distance also remains: an insignificant creature has an audience with the highest Majesty.
Q. 116. Why is prayer necessary for Christians?
(a) Psalm 50:14; Prayer is necessary Prayer is innecessary for Christians. "Pray without ceasing," said Paul (1 Thessalonians 5:17). God has commanded and ordered it. It is the express will of the Lord that we pray. "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Matthew 7:7). First of all, prayer is the chief part of thankfulness. God says, "Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High" (Psalm 50:14). It is a thankfulness for deliverance from the power of Satan and for the forgiveness of sins. Thankfulness is expressed in the keeping God's commandments. However, we are unable to keep those commandments in our own strength. We are incapable of fulfilling the law. Therefore prayer is necessary. "Grant grace, O Lord, that we may treasure Thy law, and faithfully rejoice in Christ alone, with strength and pleasure serve Thee, with thankful heart and voice" (Psalter 435, The Ten Commandments, verse 9). Secondly, God will give His grace and Holy Spirit to those only who with sincere desires continually ask them of Him, and are thankful for them. The Lord connected praying and receiving. "Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it" (Psalm 81:10b). Christ gives an beautiful example of a persistent prayer in the parable of the unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8). Why pray? Prayer must be made ceasing. Paul said, "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving" (Colossians 4:2). For what must the believing Christian ask the most in prayer? For God's grace and the Holy Spirit! This concerns the grace of sanctification and the operation of the Holy Spirit in the heart. These are the spiritual benefits, and are most important in our lives. With sincere desires and without ceasing these are to be requested. One who truly prays is actually a beggar. He must be a thankful beggar, for prayer must also be combined with thankfulness for all the gifts of grace given by the Lord. Without thankfulness prayer is not pleasing unto God.
Q. 117. What are the requisites of that prayer, which is acceptable to God, and which He
will hear?
(a) John 4:24, Psalm 145:18; How must we pray?
Now that we have heard that we must pray, we now read in answer 117 how we must pray.
This concerns a prayer that is acceptable to the Lord. The Catechism mentions three
marks of a true prayer: Praying only to God First, we must call upon the only true God and on Him alone. That is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus we must not pray to saints or Mary. Prayer is an honor to which God alone is worthy. Christ said to Satan, who sought to tempt Him, that it is written, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve" (Matthew 4:10b). We must pray to God as He has revealed Himself in His Word. How did He reveal Himself? It is as a God who is angry about our sins, but also as a God who is great in loving-kindness and mercy. The Lord has made Himself known as the Hearer of prayer. It is that God whom we must call upon for all what He commanded us to pray. John wrote, "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). We must pray with our heart, and not without thinking about what we are praying. We pray with our heart when the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of grace and supplications, works in our heart. The Lord said of Paul, "For, behold, he prayeth" (Acts 9:11). Nothing deserved Secondly, because of our need and misery, we must pray humbly. Our deepest misery is not our poverty, loneliness, sickness, or whatever else there may be. No, our deepest misery, also when we are children of God, is that we are sinners. Even then we still have many sinful desires within us, against which we have to fight. For that reason we only deserve the curse of God and eternal death. When we know our need and misery in a right and thorough way, this will humble us before God. Then our prayer will also become humble. Because of our sins, we must humble ourselves before God's majesty, that is, bow down in shame. There must be knowledge of God and knowledge of self. We are guilty and miserable before that great and holy God. We are beggars who have no rights. Only the Holy Spirit can make us aware of our need and misery. David says, "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit" (Psalm 34:18). Praying trustingly Thirdly, we must trust that God will answer our prayer when we pray to Him in faith. We must not approach God in a doubting manner. We read in the epistle to the Hebrews, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6). "For Christ's sake" means, that one, although in himself so unworthy, still may hope for an answer, for Christ merited it. Although we are so guilty, we still have a firm ground to hope that our prayers will be answered. Christ says, "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My Name, He will give it you" (John 16:23). We have no merits and we are not worthy, but the Lord, in spite of all this, promised that He for Christ's sake will answer the prayers of His children. "For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh shall be opened" (Matthew 7:8). This does not mean that God will always answer in the way we would like. God did not give heed to Moses, when he prayed that he would be allowed to enter into the earthly land of Canaan. However, he was permitted to see the land (Deuteronomy 3:25-27). And he was allowed to enter into the heavenly Canaan. Paul besought the Lord that He would take away the vexation of the thorn in his flesh which God had given him (a messenger of Satan to buffet him). The Lord did not give heed, but did give him grace to be able to bear this vexation: "My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). On the one hand, we may pray to God in full confidence. On the other hand, we must render deep respect because of the holiness of God. Reverence before the Lord must be shown by our posture during prayer. In biblical times, men lifted up their eyes unto heaven, with their arms extended and the palms of hands turned upwards. Today the most customary posture of prayer is the closing of the eyes and the folding of the hands. Closed eyes indicate a disconnecting from the world; folded hands indicate dependence. The psalmist said: "O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker" (Psalm 95:6).
Q. 118. What hath God commanded us to ask of Him? (a) James 1:17, Matthew 6:33. The contents of prayer Now the Catechism asks about the contents of prayer. We may pray for all things necessary for soul and body (that is: the necessities which we lack). Included in this we understand everything which we do not have and yet cannot do without. Spiritual and bodily means the needs for our spiritual life and for our temporal life. Spiritual necessities Christ has said, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Mathew 6: 33). Even when we are God's children, we must continually pray for God's grace, for the continual forgiveness of sins, and for increase in the knowledge and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Bodily necessities We must also pray for our bodily needs. We may pray for everything that we need for the supporting, the strengthening, and the advancement of our life. This means no abundance and no lack. Agur said, "Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me" (= appointed by Thee or considered appropriate by Thee) (Proverbs 30:8). Of course, we must work for our sustenance, but we must also pray for it. 'Ora et labora', pray and work. We must not only pray for good things, but also for preservation from evil. When there is need, illness or danger, we may pray for help. Help can also mean that we receive strength to bear or endure. Sanctified evil does not grieve. David prayed for preservation: "Preserve me, O God: for in Thee do I put my trust" (Psalm 16:1). Hannah prayed for a son: "And prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore" (1 Samuel 1:10). Hezekiah prayed for recovery: "Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD" (Isaiah 38:2). It is also necessary to pray for others. When Peter was in prison, the congregation prayed for his deliverance. Thy will be done God, however, does not give everything for which we ask. He hears in His own way. He only gives that what is good for us. Therefore we pray, "Thy will be done," that is: that also in our prayers we submit ourselves to Thy will, because what Thou wills is always good. That is how Christ prayed in Gethsemane, sorrowful and very heavy under suffering: "O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt" (Matthew 26:39). What a privilege it is to be allowed to go to the Lord in prayer for everything necessary for this life! He is willing to teach us to pray. He gave His disciples and all His children the perfect "Our Father" as a prayer to pray.
Q. 119. What are the words of that prayer?
2. Thy kingdom come. 3. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. 4. Give us this day our daily bread. 5. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 6. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 7. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." The request for a prayer One of the disciples asked the Lord Jesus how they ought to pray. We read: "And it came to pass, that, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples" (Luke 11:1). The disciple asked a very good question. He actually asked the Lord to give a direction for prayer. The disciple showed that he himself did not know how to pray. And who can do so? No person knows how to pray; only the Lord Jesus does. He teaches His followers the perfect prayer. He also gives additional instructions. Christ said in the sermon on the Mount, "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father, which is in secret (...) But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions" (Matthew 6:6-7). Look for a solitary place to pray, and do not make your prayer unnecessarily long. The Lord looks truth in the inward parts. We read in Psalm 145:18: "The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth." The Lord's Prayer This prayer then follows, which, in a few words, contains everything necessary for soul and body. This prayer is called "The Lord's Prayer." We read this in two places in the Bible, namely Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4. It is an amazingly beautiful and childlike simple prayer, in which all our needs are expressed. This is not a prayer to be rattled off, but to be learned word for word, as matters for the heart. All people are urged to pray, thus also those who are unconverted. "And call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me" (Psalm 50:15). A clear example in the Bible is the conversion of Manasseh. We read of him: "And he (Manasseh) prayed to Him: and He was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD He was God" (2 Chronicles 33:13). The Lord does not leave a believing prayer to himself. The Lord's Prayer is not a standard prayer which should be repeated endlessly, but a prayer that sometimes can be literally recited, providing that during prayer we at least realize for what we are asking. The Lord's Prayer is especially meant to be an example for our personal prayers. The mark of the ungodly is that they do not pray in truth. The apostle James said of them, "Ye lust, and have not; (...) ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts" (James 4:2-3). Questions for lesson 16 (Lord's Day 45).
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