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Calvin on Prayer – God Forgives Us When Our Prayers Are Marked by Human Weakness

Calvin addresses a matter most Christians have thought or worried about. “Does God accept my prayers when I doubt, am impatient with him, or when I allow my mind to wander carelessly?” Calvin reminds us that our prayers do not require perfection in wording nor perfect faith to be heard and answered by God. What God seeks of us is an awareness and acknowledgement of his majesty.

16. Our prayers can obtain an answer only through God’s forgiveness

Calvin reminds us that the essence of prayer is intimate conversation with God.

This also is worth noting: what I have set forth on the four rules of right praying (What God Offers Us in Prayer ) is not so rigorously required that God will reject those prayers in which he finds neither perfect faith nor repentance, together with a warmth of zeal and petitions rightly conceived.

I have said that, although prayer is an intimate conversation of the pious with God, yet reverence and moderation must be kept, lest we give loose rein to miscellaneous requests, and lest we crave more than God allows; further, that we should lift up our minds to a pure and chaste veneration of him, lest God’s majesty become worthless for us.

He cites David as one forgiven for improper prayer.

No one has ever carried this out with the uprightness that was due; for, not to mention the rank and file, how many complaints of David savor of intemperance! Not that he would either deliberately expostulate with God or clamor against his judgments, but that, fainting with weakness, he finds no other solace better than to cast his own sorrows into the bosom of God. But God tolerates even our stammering and pardons our ignorance whenever something inadvertently escapes us; as indeed without this mercy there would be no freedom to pray. But although David intended to submit completely to God’s will, and prayed with no less patience than zeal to obtain his request, yet there come forth—sometimes, rather, boil up—turbulent emotions, quite out of harmony with the first rule that we laid down.

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John CalvinKim RiddlebargerMarch 26, 2025Weakness and PrayerComment

Calvin on Prayer -- Praying Improperly

In previous installments, we have seen how insightful is when it comes to the matter of prayer. His discussion provides a helpful guide to praying properly, fervently, and often. But what about those times when we pray angrily or with improper motives? What if we do what televangelist Joyce Meyer cautions us not to do—”pray a stupid prayer”?

Calvin addresses that matter in the next section

15. Hearkening to Perverted Prayer

What about those instances when our prayers are offered from anger or from a desire for revenge or retribution?

Here more than one question is raised: for Scripture relates that God has granted fulfillment of certain prayers, despite the fact that they have burst forth from a heart not at all peaceful or composed. For due cause, yet aroused by passionate wrath and vengeance, Jotham had vowed the inhabitants of Shechem to the destruction that later overtook them [Judg. 9:20]; God in allowing the curse seems to approve ill-controlled outbreaks. Such passion also seized Samson, when he said: “Strengthen me, O God, that I may take vengeance on the uncircumcised” (Judg. 16:28). For even though there was some righteous zeal mixed in, still a burning and hence vicious longing for vengeance was in control. God granted the petition. From this, it seems, we may infer that, although prayers are not framed to the rule of the Word, they obtain their effect.

Indeed, Calvin reminds us there are times when we are ill-informed about matters, and pray improperly, like calling down fire on our enemies.

I reply that a universal law is not abrogated by individual examples; further, that special impulses have sometimes been imparted to a few men, by which it came about that a different consideration applied to them than to the common folk. For we must note Christ’s answer when his disciples heedlessly desired him to emulate the example of Elijah, that they did not know with what sort of spirit they were endowed (Luke 9:55).

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John CalvinKim RiddlebargerFebruary 26, 2025Praying improperlyComment

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.

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John CalvinKim RiddlebargerJanuary 30, 2025Calvin's fourth rule of prayerComment

Calvin's Third Rule of Prayer

As noted in previous installments, Calvin’s discussion of prayer is especially helpful in uncertain times such as our own. His third rule of prayer focuses upon giving up on our own righteousness, confessing our sins, and pleading for pardon, in preparation for prayer. From this flows proper prayer.

Third Rule: We yield all confidence in ourselves and humbly plead for pardon.[1]

We come as humble suppliants for mercy

Calvin points out that we must consider who we are our and our sinful state before we undertake prayer.

Anyone who stands before God to pray, in his humility giving glory completely to God, abandon all thought of his own glory, cast off all notion of his own worth, in fine, put away all self-assurance—lest if we claim for ourselves anything, even the least bit, we should become vainly puffed up, and perish at his presence. We have repeated examples of this submission, which levels all haughtiness, in God’s servants; each one of whom, the holier he is, the more he is cast down when he presents himself before the Lord.

Calvin appeals to Daniel and David as illustrations of his point

Thus spoke Daniel, whom the Lord himself commended with so great a title: “We do not pour forth our prayers unto thee on the ground of our righteousnesses but on the ground of thy great mercy. O Lord, hear us; O Lord, be kindly unto us. Hear us, and do what we ask . . . for thine own sake . . . because thy name is called upon over thy people, and over thine holy place” (Dan. 9:18–19). Nor does he, by a devious figure of speech, as some men do, mingle with the crowd as one of the people. Rather he confesses his guilt as an individual, and as a suppliant takes refuge in God’s pardon, as he eloquently declares: “When I had … confessed my sin and the sin of my people” (Dan. 9:20). David also enjoins this humility by his own example: “Enter not into judgment with thy servant, for no man living is righteous before thee” (Ps. 143:2).

Isaiah and Jeremiah also provide illustration.

In such a form, Isaiah prays: “Behold, thou wert wroth, for we sinned . . . . The world is founded upon thy ways, therefore we shall be saved . . . . And all of us have been full of uncleanness, and all our righteousnesses like a filthy rag; we all have faded like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, scatter us. There is no one who calls upon thy name, who bestirs himself to take hold of thee. For thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast made us to melt away in the hand of our iniquities. Yet, O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay, thou art our potter and we are the work of thy hand. Be not angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold now, consider, we are all thy people” (Isa. 64:5–9). Observe that they depend on no assurance whatever but this alone: that, reckoning themselves to be of God, they do not despair that he will take care of them. Likewise, Jeremiah: “Though our iniquities testify against us, act . . . for thy name’s sake” (Jer. 14:7).

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John CalvinKim RiddlebargerJanuary 10, 2025Calvin's 3rd rule of prayerComment

Calvin's Second Rule of Prayer

One thing all of God’s people can do in an uncertain time such as ours is to pray fervently and regularly while trusting in God’s providential purposes, whatever these purposes might be. John Calvin is a useful guide here. His rules for prayer are wise and simple.

In his second rule, Calvin cautions against rote prayers arising from habit and cold hearts. What do we seek when we pray?

The Second Rule—Repentance and a Sincere Sense of Need

The Sense of Need Excludes Unreality

Let this be the second rule: that in our petitions we ever sense our own insufficiency, and earnestly pondering how we need all that we seek, join with this prayer an earnest—nay, burning—desire to attain it. For many perfunctorily intone prayers after a set form, as if discharging a duty to God. And although they admit it to be a necessary remedy for their ills, because it would be fatal to lack the help of God which they are beseeching, still it appears that they perform this duty from habit, because their hearts are meanwhile cold, and they do not ponder what they ask.

Calvin also cautions against praying for forgiveness when someone does not truly acknowledge they are sinners. Such people mock God and are merely going through the motions because they are “stuffed with depravity.”

Indeed, a general and confused feeling of their need leads them to prayer, but it does not arouse them, as it were in present reality, to seek the relief of their poverty. Now what do we account more hateful or even execrable to God than the fiction of someone asking pardon for his sins, all the while either thinking he is not a sinner or at least not thinking he is a sinner? Unquestionably something in which God himself is mocked! Yet, as I have just said, mankind is so stuffed with such depravity that for the sake of mere performance men often beseech God for many things that they are dead sure will, apart from his kindness, come to them from some other source, or already lie in their possession.

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John CalvinKim RiddlebargerDecember 11, 20242nd Rule of Prayer, Repentance and NeedComment

Calvin's First Rule of Prayer

We live under the threat of war and rumors of war, there is political and economic uncertainty following the election, and we face an increasingly immoral and hostile culture. One thing all of God’s people can do is pray as we trust in God’s providential purposes, as mysterious as these purposes might be.

Calvin’s treatment of prayer is very useful in helping us think about how and for what we ought to pray. We start with his first rule and sub points.

The First Rule: Reverence

Devout detachment required for conversation with God:

By this, Calvin meant clearing our minds and reflecting upon the great privilege of entering into God’s presence.

Now for framing prayer duly and properly, let this be the first rule: that we be disposed in mind and heart as befits those who enter conversation with God. This we shall indeed attain with respect to the mind if it is freed from carnal cares and thoughts by which it can be called or led away from right and pure contemplation of God, and then not only devotes itself completely to prayer but also, in so far as this is possible, is lifted and carried beyond itself. Now I do not here require the mind to be so detached as never to be pricked or gnawed by vexations, since, on the contrary, great anxiety should kindle in us the desire to pray.
Thus we see that God’s saintly servants give proof of huge torments, not to say vexations, when they speak of uttering their plaintive cry to the Lord from the deep abyss, and from the very jaws of death [cf. Ps. 130:1]. But I say that we are to rid ourselves of all alien and outside cares, by which the mind, itself a wanderer, is borne about hither and thither, drawn away from heaven, and pressed down to earth. I mean that it ought to be raised above itself that it may not bring into God’s sight anything our blind and stupid reason is wont to devise, nor hold itself within the limits of its own vanity, but rise to a purity worthy of God.

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John CalvinKim RiddlebargerNovember 22, 2024The first rule of prayerComment

John Calvin’s Six Reasons to Pray

We live under the threat of war and rumors of war, there is an upcoming national election bringing all sorts of political uncertainly, and we face an increasingly immoral and hostile culture. One thing all of God’s people can do is pray and trust in God’s providential purposes, as mysterious as these might be.

John Calvin gives us six reasons why prayer at such times is vital. His reasons are pastoral and well-worth consideration.

But, someone will say, does God not know, even without being reminded, both in what respect we are troubled and what is expedient for us, so that it may seem in a sense superfluous that he should be stirred up by our prayers—as if he were drowsily blinking or even sleeping until he is aroused by our voice? But they who thus reason do not observe to what end the Lord instructed his people to pray, for he ordained it not so much for his own sake as for ours. Now he wills—as is right—that his due be rendered to him, in the recognition that everything men desire and account conducive to their own profit comes from him, and in the attestation of this by prayers. But the profit of this sacrifice also, by which he is worshiped, returns to us. Accordingly, the holy fathers, the more confidently they extolled God’s benefits among themselves and others, were the more keenly aroused to pray. It will be enough for us to note the single example of Elijah, who, sure of God’s purpose, after he has deliberately promised rain to King Ahab, still anxiously prays with his head between his knees, and sends his servant seven times to look [1 Kings 18:42], not because he would discredit his prophecy, but because he knew it was his duty, lest his faith be sleepy or sluggish, to lay his desires before God.

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John CalvinKim RiddlebargerOctober 23, 2024Six reaons to pray Comment

Digging Up the Treasures of the Gospel — Calvin on the Necessity of Prayer

In light of these uncertain and tumultuous times (see my previous post, In Times of Worry), Calvin addresses the matter of the necessity of prayer by making appeal to the promises of God, which he likens to finding treasure.

The Necessity of Prayer

It is, therefore, by the benefit of prayer that we reach those riches which are laid up for us with the Heavenly Father. For there is a communion of men with God by which, having entered the heavenly sanctuary, they appeal to him in person concerning his promises in order to experience, where necessity so demands, that what they believed was not vain, although he had promised it in word alone. Therefore we see that to us nothing is promised to be expected from the Lord, which we are not also bidden to ask of him in prayers. So true is it that we dig up by prayer the treasures that were pointed out by the Lord’s gospel, and which our faith has gazed upon.
Words fail to explain how necessary prayer is, and in how many ways the exercise of prayer is profitable. Surely, with good reason the Heavenly Father affirms that the only stronghold of safety is in calling upon his name [cf. Joel 2:32]. By so doing we invoke the presence both of his providence, through which he watches over and guards our affairs, and of his power, through which he sustains us, weak as we are and well-nigh overcome, and of his goodness, through which he receives us, miserably burdened with sins, unto grace; and, in short, it is by prayer that we call him to reveal himself as wholly present to us. Hence comes an extraordinary peace and repose to our consciences. For having disclosed to the Lord the necessity that was pressing upon us, we even rest fully in the thought that none of our ills is hid from him who, we are convinced, has both the will and the power to take the best care of us.

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 30.20.2

John CalvinKim RiddlebargerSeptember 25, 2024The Necessity of prayerComment

The Wisdom in John Calvin’s Exposition of 1 Corinthians 1:1-31

I have been spending a fair amount of time of late working through 1 Corinthians for the Blessed Hope Podcast, (Season Three — “God Is Faithful” A Deep Dive into 1 Corinthians) and for my re-edited exposition of 1 Corinthians in the Lectio Continua Series (Reformation Heritage Books). A couple of things have become very apparent to me.

First, although often overlooked among the Reformed (who seem more at home in Galatians, Romans, and Ephesians—Paul’s doctrinal epistles) I am repeatedly struck by how an occasional letter (like 1 Corinthians) speaks so powerfully to many of the issues the church is facing today—especially since a number of the same issues confronting Christians in a Greco-Roman pagan city such as Corinth have resurfaced before our very eyes. If you haven’t read or studied Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians in awhile I encourage you to do so.

Second, having read much of Calvin’s commentary on 1 Corinthians for these projects, it is apparent that Calvin was very much interested in ecclesiology—a major theme in Paul’s letter. As Tadataka Maruyama points out, at the urging of Farel, Calvin completed this commentary in November of 1545 and saw it published the next year—at a time when Calvin was very much concerned with “the legitimate form of the church,” which, as Calvin argues, was revealed in the two marks of a church, Word and Sacrament. This explains why Calvin’s commentary has such sharp responses to the Anabaptists, Libertines, and Nicodemites of his day—the latter a reference to someone who conceals their true views to avoid persecution or conflict. Antecedents to the teaching of all of these groups can indeed be found in first century Corinth and Calvin made much of this fact in his commentary.[1]

Calvin’s work on 1 Corinthians might just be his best commentary and should not be overlooked. Calvin is feisty in places (as is Paul), at times he manifests a wry sense of humor, and his pastoral heart and wisdom come through in so many instances throughout. We ought to keep in mind that Calvin is doing something quite new when writing this commentary—he is looking to Paul for aid in developing a Reformed (Presbyterian) ecclesiology for the Genevan church while at the same time wrestling with the interconnectedness of like-minded churches in different locales with prominent and independent leaders (Farel, Bucer, Bullinger etc.,). This commentary is a real gem and you can find it here.

To whet your whistle to read and study 1 Corinthians and/or check out Calvin’s commentary here are a number of quotes from Calvin from his commentary[2]. These are but a few brief examples from the first chapter of 1 Corinthians.

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Paul on the Nature and Danger of the Issues Facing the Corinthians

During Paul’s absence false apostles had crept in, not, in my opinion, to disturb the Church openly with wicked doctrines, or designedly to undermine sound doctrine; but, priding themselves in the splendour and magnificence of their address, or rather, being puffed up with an empty loftiness of speech, they looked upon Paul’s simplicity, and even the Gospel itself, with contempt (Volume 1, Page 37).

Note: when Calvin speaks of “false apostles,” we may immediately think of the Judaizers in Galatia. But Calvin quickly clarifies who these individuals were—those enamored with Greek wisdom—and what was driving them, ambition.

They afterwards, by their ambition, gave occasion for the Church being split into various parties; and, last of all, reckless as to every thing, provided only they were themselves held in estimation, made it their aim to promote their own honor, rather than Christ’s kingdom and the people’s welfare (Volume 1, Page 37).

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John Calvin, Reformed Resources, Biblical TheologyKim RiddlebargerAugust 21, 2024Calvin on 1 CorinthiansComment