Calvin's Fourth Rule of Prayer

Calvin’s treatment of prayer is very helpful in uncertain times such as our own. His fourth rule instructs us to pray with hope, knowing that God will answer us, just as he has promised to do

The Fourth Rule: We pray with confident hope[1]

Hope and faith overcome fear

Calvin exhorts us to pray in humility, yet with the resolute expectation that our prayers (if offered in faith and repentance) will be answered.

The fourth rule is that, thus cast down and overcome by true humility, we should be nonetheless encouraged to pray by a sure hope that our prayer will be answered. These are indeed things apparently contrary: to join the firm assurance of God’s favor to a sense of his just vengeance; yet, on the ground that God’s goodness alone raises up those oppressed by their own evil deeds, they very well agree together. For, in accordance with our previous teaching that repentance and faith are companions joined together by an indissoluble bond, although one of these terrifies us while the other gladdens us, so also these two ought to be present together in prayers. . . . For not only does his majesty constrain us to reverence but through our own unworthiness, forgetting all pride and self-confidence, we are held in fear.

For Calvin, times of trouble and tribulation are an important occasion for prayer, and during which we discover God’s goodness to us

But “assurance” I do not understand to mean that which soothes our mind with sweet and perfect repose, releasing it from every anxiety. For to repose so peacefully is the part of those who, when all affairs are flowing to their liking, are touched by no care, burn with no desire, toss with no fear. But for the saints the occasion that best stimulates them to call upon God is when, distressed by their own need, they are troubled by the greatest unrest, and are almost driven out of their senses, until faith opportunely comes to their relief. For among such tribulations God’s goodness so shines upon them that even when they groan with weariness under the weight of present ills, and also are troubled and tormented by the fear of greater ones, yet, relying upon his goodness, they are relieved of the difficulty of bearing them, and are solaced and hope for escape and deliverance.

Prayer and faith

But faith, not presumption is to be our guide—no prosperity gospel here

Therefore nothing is more in harmony with the nature of prayers than that this rule be laid down and established for them: that they not break forth by chance but follow faith as guide. Christ calls this principle to the attention of all of us with this saying: “I say unto you, whatever you seek . . . . believe that you will receive it, and it will come to you.” [Mark 11:24 ] . . . . To sum up, it is faith that obtains whatever is granted to prayer. Such is the meaning of Paul’s famous statement, which the unwise too little regard: “How will anyone call upon him in whom he has not believed? And who will believe unless he has heard?” [Rom. 10:14]. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing from the Word of God.” [Rom. 10:17]. For, deducing step by step the beginning of prayer from faith, he plainly asserts that God cannot be sincerely called upon by others than those to whom, through the preaching of the gospel, his kindness and gentle dealing have become known—indeed, have been intimately revealed.

Against the denial of certainty that prayer is granted

Faith grasps God’s benevolence to us. It seeks what God wills, not what we want.

Our opponents do not at all ponder this requirement. Therefore, when we enjoin believers to be convinced with firm assurance of mind that God is favorable and benevolent to them, they think we are saying the most absurd thing of all. Still, if they made any use of true prayer, they would really understand that without that firm sense of the divine benevolence God could not be rightly called upon. Since no one can well perceive the power of faith unless he feels it by experience in his heart, what point is there in arguing with men of this stripe, who clearly show that they have never had anything but an empty imagination? For the value and need of that assurance, which we require, is chiefly learned from calling upon him. He who does not see this shows that he has a very insensate conscience.

Scripture exhorts us to pray with confidence

Now what sort of prayer will this be? “O Lord, I am in doubt whether thou willest to hear me, but because I am pressed by anxiety, I flee to thee, that, if I am worthy, thou mayest help me.” This is not the way of all the saints whose prayers we read in Scripture. And the Holy Spirit did not so instruct us through the apostle, who enjoins us to “draw near to the heavenly throne . . . with confidence, that we may receive grace” [Heb. 4:16.]; and when he teaches elsewhere that we have boldness and access in confidence through faith in Christ [Eph. 3:12]. If we would pray fruitfully, we ought therefore to grasp with both hands this assurance of obtaining what we ask, which the Lord enjoins with his own voice, and all the saints teach by their example.

Acknowledging our sinfulness and frailty is vital

Here let my readers recall what I said before: that faith is not at all overthrown when it is joined with the acknowledgment of our misery, destitution, and uncleanness. For however much believers may feel pressed down or troubled by a heavy weight of sins, not only bereft of all things that might obtain favor with God, but laden with many offenses that justly render him terrifying, nevertheless they do not cease to present themselves; and this feeling does not frighten them from betaking themselves to him, since there is no other access to him. For prayer was not ordained that we should be haughtily puffed up before God, or greatly esteem anything of ours, but that, having confessed our guilt, we should deplore our distresses before him, as children unburden their troubles to their parents.

God’s command and promise as motive for prayer

God himself instructs us to call on him in times of trouble

First, bidding us pray, by the precept itself he convicts us of impious obstinacy unless we obey. Nothing could be commanded more precisely than what is stated in the psalm: “Call upon me in the day of tribulation” [Ps. 50:15]. But because among the duties of godliness the Scriptures commend none more frequently, I need not dwell longer on this point. “Seek,” says the Master, “and you will receive; knock, and it will be opened unto you.” [Matt. 7:7.] However, a promise is here also added to the precept, as is necessary; for even though all admit that the precept ought to be obeyed, still the majority would flee from God when he calls if he did not promise to be easily entreated and readily accessible.

Men should pray confidently, without terror but with reverential fear

We pray, knowing that God will hear us because he is generous

It is strange that by promises of such great sweetness we are affected either so coldly or hardly at all, so that many of us prefer to wander through mazes and, forsaking the fountain of living waters, to dig out for ourselves dry cisterns [Jer. 2:13], rather than to embrace God’s generosity, freely given to us. “The name of the Lord is an impregnable citadel,” says Solomon; “the righteous man will flee to it and be saved.” [Prov. 18:10 p.] But Joel, after he has prophesied the frightful ruin that threatens, adds this memorable sentence: “All that call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered” [Joel 2:32; Rom. 10:13]. This we know actually refers to the course of the gospel [Acts 2:21]. Scarcely one man in a hundred is moved to approach God. He himself proclaims through Isaiah: “You will call upon me and I shall hear you. Nay, before you call, I will answer you” [Isa. 65:24 ].

We pray because God is gentle and kind to his people.

It remains for us, provided with such inducements, to know that we have from this enough evidence that he will hearken to us, inasmuch as our prayers depend upon no merit of ours, but their whole worth and hope of fulfillment are grounded in God’s promises, and depend upon them, so that they need no other support, nor do they look about up and down, hither and thither. We must therefore make up our minds that, even though we do not excel in a holiness like that which is praised in the holy patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, yet because we and they have a common command to pray and a common faith, if we rely upon God’s Word, in this we are rightly their fellows. For God, as has been seen above, declaring that he will be gentle and kind to all, gives to the utterly miserable, hope that they will get what they have sought.

Institutes 3.20.11-14

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The first in the series, What God Offers Us in Prayer

The second in the series, The Necessity of Payer

Calvin’s First Rule of Prayer

Calvin’s Second Rule of Prayer

Calvin’s Third Rule of Prayer

{1] I’ve abridged Calvin’s fourth rule considerably.