On Prayer

389. Is there any testimony of God's Word to this, that prayer is a mean for attaining to a saving hope? Jesus Christ himself joins the hope of receiving our desire with prayer: Whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. John xiv. 13. 390. What is Prayer? The lifting up of man's mind and heart to God, manifested by devout words. 391. What should the Christian do when he lifts up his mind and heart to God? First, he should glorify him for his divine perfections; secondly, give thanks to him for his mercies; thirdly, ask him for what he needs. So there are three chief forms of prayer: Praise, Thanksgiving, and Petition. 392. Can a man pray without words? He can: in mind and heart. An example of this may be seen in Moses before the passage through the Red Sea. Exod. xiv. 15. 393. Has not such prayer a name of its own? It is called spiritual, or prayer of the heart and mind, in one word, inward prayer; while, on the other hand, prayer expressed in words, and accompanied by other marks of devotion, is called oral or outward prayer. 394. Can there be outward prayer without inward? There can: if any man utter words of prayer without attention or earnestness. 395. Does outward prayer alone suffice to obtain grace? So far is it from sufficing to obtain grace, that contrariwise it provokes God to anger. God has himself declared his displeasure at such prayer: This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me: but in vain do they worship me. Matt. xv. 8, 9. 396. Does not inward prayer alone suffice without outward? This question is as if one should ask whether soul alone might not suffice for man without body. It is idle to ask this, seeing that God has been pleased to make man consist of soul and body; likewise idle it is to ask whether inward prayer alone may not suffice without outward. Since we have both soul and body, we ought to glorify God in our bodies, and in our souls, which are God's: this being besides natural, that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth should speak. Our Lord Jesus Christ was spiritual in the highest degree, but even he expressed his spiritual prayer both by words and by devout gestures of body, sometimes, for instance, lifting up his eyes to heaven, sometimes kneeling, or falling on his face to the ground. 1 Cor. vi. 20; Matt. xii. 34; John xvii. 1; Luke xxii. 41; Matt. xxvi. 39.