Everyday Prayer with John Calvin

January 5, 2021

Meditation for the day taken from "Everyday prayer with John Calvin" written by Donald McKim:

Scripture: Gen. 32:9-23

"Sometimes we pray, ask God for something, and then forget about it. We assume that God will act while we stand by and wait for the answer to our prayer to appear. But this is too simple, and it is not what God desires."

Calvin saw, in these steps that Jacob took, a prescription for how we should follow through with our own prayers to God. He wrote, 'After he has prayed to the Lord, and arranged his plans, he now takes confidence and meets the danger. By which example the faithful are taught, that whenever any danger approaches, this order of proceeding is to be observed; first, to resort directly to the Lord; secondly, to apply to immediate use whatever means of help may offer themselves; and thirdly, as persons prepared for any event, to proceed with intrepidity whithersoever the Lord commands. '" (19)

Brothers and sisters, indeed, pray and cast all your cares and burdens upon the Lord. However, do not merely pray and sit idle. Instead, pray and then, with diligence, use the means God has given. We might pray "give us this day our daily bread," and God has promised to supply our needs, but what use is it when a man prays such and then sits idle all day refusing to work and earn his daily bread. Indeed pray and then proceed to be obedient in the direction of your prayer.