The Effect of Prayer

We saw in Friday’s study that God does indeed use prayer to change things. However, He does not need for us to make requests to Him in order for His will to be done. Neither does He need our adoration, confession, or thanksgiving, though it is proper that we give Him these things. Clearly, prayer is not for God’s benefit. Therefore, it must be for ours! Of all the things changed by prayer, perhaps nothing is changed so significantly as we ourselves.

In The Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin points out numerous ways in which prayer benefits us. We cannot explore all of his points here, but we will mention three of the benefits he covers.

He notes, first of all, that the very act of asking God’s aid gives us peace of mind. “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,” Calvin writes in Book 3, Chapter 20, Section 3.

It is also the case that prayer draws us closer to God in numerous ways. Calvin writes: “It is very much for our interest to be constantly supplicating Him; first, that our heart may always be inflamed with a serious and ardent desire of seeking, loving and serving Him, while we accustom ourselves to have recourse to Him as a sacred anchor in every necessity; secondly, that no desires, no longing whatever, of which we are ashamed to make Him the witness, may enter our minds, while we learn to place all our wishes in His sight, and thus pour out our heart before Him; and, lastly, that we may be prepared to receive all His benefits with true gratitude and thanksgiving, while our prayers remind us that they proceed from His hand.”

And prayer also deepens our trust in God, the Reformer says. “Use and experience confirm the thought of His providence in our minds in a manner adapted to our weakness, when we understand that He not only promises that He will never fail us, and spontaneously gives us access to approach Him in every time of need, but has His hand always stretched out to assist His people, not amusing them with words, but proving Himself to be a present aid,” he writes.