It is a great temptation to think that the same God who created and sustains us, who so loved us that he gave his only begotten Son for us (John 3:16), who granted to us new life and true faith, who has united us to Christ, and in him, given us “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Eph 1:3) is disinterested in our spiritual and temporal needs. The very opposite is true. Scripture repeatedly exhorts and invites us to prayer. Very simply, the apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17). James says, “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray” (Jas 5:13). He goes on to say, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (Jas 5:16). To the Colossians Paul wrote, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison” (Col 4:2–3). One day, after Jesus finished praying, “one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.'” In response, our Lord taught us to pray by giving us the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11:2–4). It is in recognition of the importance of prayer in the Christian life that, in the Heidelberg Catechism we confess that Christian prayer is “the chief part of thankfulness.”1
For those who have received such great favor from God, in Christ, who have been blessed so abundantly with the Holy Spirit—who even helps us to pray (Rom 8:26)—prayer should be like breathing, it should come naturally and we should, as Paul exhorted us, do it continually, but the truth is that we do not. It can be a great struggle for us to get off our feet, as it were, and on our knees to acknowledge our dear heavenly Father, to honor his name, to pray for his kingdom, to submit to his will revealed in Holy Scripture, to pray for our daily needs, to ask for forgiveness and spiritual growth, and for deliverance from evil.
This is doubtless because prayer is not only an act of faith but also an act of mortification (i.e., dying to self). In prayer we recognize who and what we are (sinful creatures), and we recognize our triune God for what he is.
What Is Prayer?
Zacharias Ursinus (1534–83), who was the principal author of the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), defined prayer this way:
Prayer consists in calling upon the true God, and arises from an acknowledgment and sense of our need, and from a desire of sharing in the divine kindness, in true conversion of heart and confidence in the promise of grace for the sake of Christ the mediator, asking at the hands of God such temporal and spiritual blessings as are necessary for us; or in giving thanks to God for the benefits received.”2
It is vital that we do not miss what prayer is: It is calling out to our God, our Father, in the confidence that he hears us for Christ’s sake. It is not calling upon believers who have died before us, not even upon the blessed virgin. They cannot hear or help us and they would not want us to pray to them. In the Belgic Confession (1561) the Reformed churches spoke to the false notion that we should turn to saints in prayer:
So then, sheer unbelief has led to the practice of dishonoring the saints, instead of honoring them. That was something the saints never did nor asked for, but which in keeping with their duty, as appears from their writings, they consistently refused. We should not plead here that we are unworthy—for it is not a question of offering our prayers on the basis of our own dignity but only on the basis of the excellence and dignity of Jesus Christ, whose righteousness is ours by faith.3
A Jewish–Christian congregation faced similar temptations in the first century. They were tempted to turn to angels, but the pastor who wrote to them reminded them that it was not an angel but he who is the eternally and only begotten Son of God who became incarnate—that is, Jesus Christ alone (Heb 1:5–14). He is at the right hand of the Father. We pray to the Father, in the name of Christ, because his throne is forever. He has the power to hear and answer our prayers. Hebrews says, “For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Heb 2:16–17). Jesus, who is able to save us, ever lives to intercede for us (Heb 7:25). The pastor to the Hebrews was so concerned that we understand that Jesus understands us and cares for us, that he repeated again in chapter 4 what he just said in chapter 2: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15). Jesus is like us in every respect, sin excepted, and therefore he understands our temptations and our struggles, and, as we have seen, he, unlike the saints, can hear and answer our prayers.
We even have some idea of how he is praying for us right now. The Gospel of John records for us what is often called his “high priestly prayer” in John chapter 17. In it he lifts his eyes to heaven (v. 1) and he speaks to the Father for us. He recognizes that he must die for us and be glorified (v. 2), that the Father has given him “authority over all flesh” and authority to give “eternal life to all whom you have given” to him (v. 2; cf. v. 6). We know that Jesus hears our prayers and makes them known to the Father because all his elect have belonged to him from all eternity.
He gives the basis for our confidence that the Father hears his prayer for us: “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do” (v. 4). He says explicitly that he is praying for us, his people—that is, those whom the Father gave him—and not “for the world” (v. 9). He prays that the Father would keep us in the Father’s name (v. 11). He did not pray that the Father would take us out of the world but that he would keep us from the evil one (v. 15), that he would sanctify us in the Word (v. 17). He prays for us, whom the Spirit would bring to faith through the teaching of the apostles (v. 20), that we would be united, that through us the world would believe that Father sent the Son (v. 21–23). He prayed that we might one day be with him and see the glory that he had before the incarnation (v. 24).
From John 17, we see why the Reformed churches confess that, in prayer, “first, that with our whole heart we call only upon the one true God, who has revealed himself to us in his Word, for all that he has commanded us to ask of him; secondly, that we thoroughly know our need and misery, so as to humble ourselves in the presence of his divine majesty; thirdly, that we be firmly assured, that notwithstanding our unworthiness, he will, for the sake of Christ our Lord, certainly hear our prayer, as he has promised us in his Word.”4
How Do We Pray?
We are very blessed not only to know that our Lord Jesus, our high priest and only mediator is praying for us right now (Heb 2:17; 3:1; 4;14; 5:1; 6:20; 7:1; 8:1) but also how we ought to pray:
Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation (Luke 11:2b–4).
The first thing we should notice is that not every prayer must be lengthy. The Lord’s Prayer takes up only two verses of Scripture. Second, we begin by acknowledging God as our heavenly Father, for Christ’s sake. We pray first of all that his name might be recognized for what it is—holy. Our first act of prayer is to look away from ourselves. It is an act of adoration. The second act of prayer is to ask that the kingdom of God might be expanded on earth, and that the consummation of all things might come quickly (Rev 22:20). The third act of prayer is to ask our Father for our daily needs. He knows you have needs and our Lord taught us not to worry (Matt 10:29–32), but here he also teaches us to ask God to meet our basic needs. The fourth act of prayer is to confess our sins before him and to ask for forgiveness. There is no need to try to hide your sins from God. He knows everything and he sees everything. If you have trusted in Christ, you are no longer under condemnation (Rom 8:1). Your heavenly Father loves to hear your confession of sin and he loves to forgive you. This is actually a powerful part of sanctification, because in confession we admit to God and to ourselves how sinful we are and the particular sins of of which we are aware. That is a step of dying to sin and living to Christ. This is what it means to say that we forgive those who sin against us. By God’s free grace we are able to do that because we know that we were freely forgiven by God. The fifth step in prayer is to ask our Father to protect us from temptation, which again, is recognizing before God how vulnerable and needy we are and how strong to save he is.
In 1 Chronicles 29:10–13, David prayed before the covenant assembly and he gave the following doxology:
Therefore David blessed the LORD in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: “Blessed are you, O LORD, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.
In some later copies of the Lord’s Prayer, some of this language is appended to the Lord’s Prayer, “for yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”5 Though the concluding doxology is a later addition, it is fitting to close our prayer by praising God. Everything that the doxology says is true and worthy of God, as we see from David’s doxology. We are, after all, speaking with the great King, who has not only made us but saved from from the consequences of our sin, and who loves with an everlasting love (Jer 31:3). He truly deserves all our praise.
There is much more that we might say about prayer, about the importance of prayer in public worship—that is why in our services we often have a pastoral prayer that is longer than is sometimes found in other traditions. We begin our services with prayer and we pray throughout the service at different times. We do this deliberately because it is right and biblical to acknowledge our God constantly in prayer, because it is in him that we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).
Do not worry about making mistakes in your prayers. It is not a test. No one is grading you. You need not be eloquent, and it is fine simply to pray the words of the Lord’s Prayer. There are even helps for prayer such as the Forms and Prayers. Remember, as you pray, the Spirit is helping you and our Lord Jesus is making your prayers known to the Father. He will sanctify even your weakest prayer.
notes
- R. Scott Clark, The Heidelberg Catechism: A Historical, Theological & Pastoral Commentary (Lexham Academic, 2025), 838.
- Clark, The Heidelberg Catechism, 838.
- Belgic Confession, art. 26.
- Clark, The Heidelberg Catechism, 843
- Clark, The Heidelberg Catechism, 848.
©R. Scott Clark. All Rights Reserved.
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R. Scott Clark
R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.
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