All of us pray, and each of us considers coming before the throne of grace to be vitally important. Imagine a large group of churchgoers who did not know how to pray. That was the situation in the late medieval church.

When John Calvin began ministry in the 16th Century in Geneva, Switzerland, the people thought that it was more pious for them to pray in Latin—even though they had no idea what they were saying! Public prayer, in the common tongue, was simply unheard of. He had to teach God’s people how to pray.

For us to learn from him, we will turn to the 1536 Institutes written by this young 27-year-old theologian. Before discussing prayer, Calvin established that men and women outside of Christ are destitute—but in Him we have complete happiness and great wealth in His treasures.

Calvin then defined prayer and gave some general rules. Prayer is:

“That our hearts may be aroused and borne to God, whether to praise him or to beseech his help—we may understand from this that the essentials of prayer are set in the mind and heart, or rather that prayer itself is properly an emotion of the heart within, which is poured out and laid bare before God, the searcher of hearts.”

This definition, combined with Calvin’s analysis of prayer, demonstrates the falsity of characterizing those who practice Calvinistic religion as the “frozen chosen.” For Calvin, prayer involved both the mind and the heart, with emphasis on the deep issues of the heart. Believers speak to God from the heart’s affections, and true prayer must spring from the heart’s deep feeling. That does not mean that the mind is absent in prayer, because public prayers must be in the common tongue so that all can understand.

The first rule of prayer was to abandon all thoughts of our own glory. The second rule was to sense our own insufficiency and earnestly seek what we need from God. There is both a command and a promise to impel us to pray. Prayer, like our faith, rests on God’s promises and should be performed in Christ’s name.

Calvin turned to the Lord’s Prayer as a perfect model. To acknowledge God as Father requires adoption into His family through the great and merciful work of Christ. God’s deep love for His children in Christ exceeds the love and care of any earthly parent. From our side, we cannot seek help from anywhere else.

Calvin then addressed an important pastoral point. Because of our sin, we sometimes feel that while God is still our Father, we believe that He is displeased with us—which makes us timid in prayer. But despite our sin, we have a strong and powerful intermediary in Christ who Himself provided a beautiful parable in Luke 15:11–32 of a prodigal son who is loved by a father before the wicked son even confesses his grievous sin.

God must be recognized as our communal Father and not just as one individual’s Father. This recognition impacts our feelings of brotherly love among members of the congregation. Since all good gifts come from this Father, then each of us should be willing to apportion among ourselves as need demands. While this sharing is particularly exhibited in mutual prayers, it is also observed practically when believers take financial care of those they know are suffering. Such financial aid is often limited to those we know within our own community, but our prayers and contributions can extend to unknown brethren across the whole earth. Calvin drew attention to our God who is in heaven and acknowledged that God is not restricted to the upper atmosphere but is diffused through all things. Even still, He is mighty, lofty, and incomprehensible.

The first petition of the Lord’s Prayer is, “Hallowed be Thy name.” God’s name is actually His power. His power comprises all of His excellencies, such as His might, wisdom, righteousness, mercy, and truth. This petition promotes His majesty being hallowed in the excellences that characterize His greatness and wonderfulness. More specifically, the prayer yearns that His excellences be held holy by all, that all recognize them and magnify them. He must be glorified in all of His works. We yearn that praise of our God resound in all hearts and on all tongues.

This positive yearning also implies that ungodliness should perish and be confounded. Ungodliness besmirches and profanes His name, and God’s glory shines more brightly when ungodliness is put away. Yearning for His name to be hallowed means that we praise Him for all the good things that we have received from His gracious hand and recognize His compassionate benefits toward us.

The second petition is, “Thy kingdom come.” The kingdom of God is not of this world because it is spiritual, incorruptible, and eternal. The kingdom comes by adding believers and those believers growing in grace. Believers pray that the church might advance and wickedness be defeated. Calvin was clear on how wickedness should be defeated: “…to ruin and cast down the reprobate, who do not acknowledge themselves to be for God and the Lord, who refuse to be subjected to His rule; and to destroy and lay low their sacrilegious arrogance, in order to make clear that there is no power which can withstand His power.”

The third petition is, “Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.” Godly people’s true heart desire is to conform their thinking and acting in obedience to Him. They also desire that all people subject their wills to His divine will. Calvin specifically mentioned that the reprobate try to evade God’s rule and fight against obedience to Him and that this petition means they should offer even unwilling and reluctant obedience.

The fourth petition, “Give us this day our daily bread,” is a transition to asking God to turn toward our own affairs and to grant us help in our great need. We know both sides of the issue; God providentially nourishes and preserves us, and we lean on Him for even the smallest matters. We know that while eternal life should be our highest concern, nevertheless, anxiety over this present life, to use Calvin’s powerful words, “sinks its teeth into the very bones of almost all men.” Furthermore, the word “daily” is important because we must not be enslaved by panting after countless things with unbridled desire.

There is a twofold aspect when we move to the fourth petition, to ask God to forgive us our debts. First, sin is like a debt because sinners owe a penalty to God that can only be released by His gracious forgiveness in Christ. The other aspect was the error of Roman Catholic theology, which trusts in either one’s own or others’ merits for divine satisfaction. The phrase “as we forgive our debtors” also had a twofold aspect for Calvin. Of first importance is the comfort that comes to believers despite their faith’s weakness. We know that we are forgiven by Christ and that by His Spirit we forgive others and cast from our minds the desire for revenge and even remembrance of injustices. The second aspect is by thus praying, the Lord excludes those who are eager for revenge and slow to forgive. Such people cannot dare call God their Father.

The sixth petition is, “Lead us not into temptation but free us from the evil one.” The first part acknowledges the many and varied forms of temptation that flow from our own inordinate desire or the devil’s evil promptings. Calvin said that temptations can attack from the right—in the form of riches, power, and honors—or from the left—poverty, disgrace, and contempt. In all of these temptations, the devil yearns to crush God’s children while God uses them to chasten us and keep us from growing sluggish.

“Free us from the evil one” has a distinct interpretation. It means that we are not vanquished by any temptation but, through the Lord’s power, can stand fast. We yearn to remain unconquered by sin, death, and even the devil’s whole kingdom. Such a victory is never accomplished in our own power but through the Lord abiding in us and fighting for us.

The last three petitions underline the public nature of such a prayer. The issue is the upbuilding of Christ’s church and the advance of our fellowship. We don’t just pray for ourselves but for all in common.

This great prayer concludes with a firm repose for our faith because God’s kingdom, power, and glory cannot be snatched away. The “amen” at the end reminds the faithful that these petitions will surely be granted because God has promised them, and He cannot deceive.

Calvin granted that, given our laziness combined with the command to pray without ceasing, we should set aside specific times for prayer. Those specific times are morning and evening and at meals.

Believers rest in what God is going to do in His own time frame and pray, “May your will be done.” He always hears our prayers even when, from our perspective, He may have turned a deaf ear to us. Knowing that He is a loving Father inclined toward us causes a change in us. In the midst of our poverty, we possess abundance and solemn comfort even when in the deepest and darkest misery.