Q. 58. What is prayer?
Prayer is communion with God— drawing near to God, in the name of Christ, to seek God’s face and ask for things agreeable to his will.
God has given us his whole Word as a rule of direction in prayer, especially that form of prayer which Christ taught his disciples, commonly called the Lord’s Prayer.
Exodus 33:11; 2 Chronicles 7:14; Psalm 27:4, 8; 32:5–6; 50:14–15; 62:8; 105:4; 145:18; Isaiah 55:6; Matthew 6:6; John 14:13–14; 16:23; Ephesians 2:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18; James 4:8; 1 John 5:14.
- WSC 98–99
- Heidelberg Catechism 116–118
Communion. “A person who does not unite himself to God through prayer is separated from God. Therefore we must learn first of all that ‘we ought always to pray and not to faint’ [Luke 18:1]. For the effect of prayer is union with God, and if someone is with God, he is separated from the enemy. Through prayer we guard our chastity, control our temper, and rid ourselves of vanity; it makes us forget injuries, overcomes envy, defeats injustice, and makes amends for sin. … Prayer is intimacy with God and contemplation of the invisible” (Gregory of Nyssa, The Lord’s Prayer 1).
Name of Christ. We approach God through the mediation of Jesus Christ (see Q. 34).
Seek God’s face. To seek God’s “face” is to seek God himself, his presence and favor, rather than merely approaching God as a means to some other end.
Whole Word … rule. The entire Bible informs and directs our prayers, and contains many great examples of prayer. The Psalms are a collection of prayers, meant to be sung or chanted, which have always been used in the daily prayers of God’s people.
Lord’s Prayer. “He who best knew what we ought to pray for, and how we ought to pray, what matter of desire, what manner of address would most please himself, would best become us, has here dictated to us a most perfect and universal form of prayer, comprehending all our real wants, expressing all our lawful desires; a complete directory and full exercise of all our devotions” (Notes on the Bible, Matthew 6:9). “The [Lord’s] Prayer is as diffuse in meaning as it is compressed in words. For it has embraced not only the special duties of prayer, be it veneration of God or petition for man, but almost every discourse of the Lord, every record of His Discipline; so that, in fact, the Prayer is comprised an epitome of the Gospel” (Tertullian, On Prayer 1). “How great, dearest brethren, are the mysteries of the Lord’s Prayer, how many, how magnificent, gathered together in a few words, yet abundant in spiritual power. There is nothing whatever with regard to our pleading and our prayer omitted, nothing not contained in this summary of heavenly doctrine” (Cyprian, The Lord’s Prayer 9).
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