Fridays with the Heidelberg

Lord’s Day 45

116. Q. WHY DO CHRISTIANS NEED TO PRAY?

     A. Because prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness God requires of us. And also because God gives His grace and Holy Spirit only to those who pray continually and groan inwardly, asking God for these gifts and thanking Him for them.

117. Q. HOW DOES GOD WANT US TO PRAY SO THAT HE WILL LISTEN TO US?

     A. First, we must pray from the heart to no other than the one true God, who has revealed Himself in His Word, asking for everything He has commanded us to ask for. Second, we must acknowledge our need and misery, hiding nothing, and humble ourselves in His majestic presence. Third, we must rest on this unshakable foundation: even though we do not deserve it, God will surely listen to our prayer because of Christ our Lord. This is what He promised us in His Word.

118. Q. WHAT DID GOD COMMAND US TO PRAY FOR?

     A. Everything we need, spiritually and physically, as embraced in the prayer Christ our Lord Himself taught us.

119. Q. WHAT IS THE PRAYER?

     A. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Why Pray? Who do we pray to?  How are we to pray?  What are we to pray? These are all good questions.  Questions that you have likely asked yourself, or have been asked by others.  The HC briefly deals with them all in today’s reading.

 The remainder of our time in the Heidelberg will be commenting on “The Lord’s Prayer”, so we will be able to think much upon the “how” and the “what” in the coming weeks.  For today, lets think about the “why”.

Since God is sovereign over all things, why pray?  He has everything under control, His eternal purposes cannot be thwarted, He knows all things, He can do all things, so why pray?   The Heidelberg points out two reasons; gratitude and means.

We pray because of who God is, what He has done and what He is going to do.  We also pray because God has chosen prayer as a means to carry out His sovereign purposes.

If you would like to think further upon this question of “why”, I suggest the following article by John Piper, “The Sovereignty of God and Prayer.”