Gethsemane and our prayers

In a sermon about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, John Calvin considers why Jesus prayed more than once about the cup he did not want to drink. Calvin concludes that ‘we see from [Jesus’] example that he urges us not to faint if our prayers are not granted as quickly as possible. Those who lose heart when God does not answer their first request show that they do not know what prayer is. For to have God as our refuge means that the right rule is to persist in prayer. Accordingly, the principal exercise of faith is prayer.’

Calvin’s explanation says a great deal about Christian experience. After all, we live in an immediate age. When something goes wrong with one of our household items, we phone up a person with the expectation that one call will be enough to get him or her to solve the problem. We cannot do that with God. It is presumption, not faith, that assumes he will act right away just because we have asked him. Of course, he may answer rapidly, but that is no proof that such faith is stronger than when he does not answer immediately.

Calvin also reminds us that faith is usually expressed in our prayers, which implies that little prayer points to little faith. Faith rather brings the matter to God, asking him to deal with it in his own way, even if he takes hours or days or weeks or months or years to do so.

There are lots of things that we pray for because we assume that the divine answer should and will be given immediately. One reason why that assumption happens is that we have forgotten the significance of divine providence, which usually works slowly. While it is the case that lack of prayer will result in nothing, it is not the case that lots of prayer will always produce an instant outcome. The answer will only come when God gives it.

One way to check our use of prayer is to ask if we are praying daily with urgency for the same things that we prayed daily with urgency for a month ago or a year ago. Calvin indicates that in his opinion a failure to persevere with petitions is evidence that those mentioning them were not really praying about them. They were merely thoughts they had for a brief time and then they evaporated.

In many ways, the Christian life is all about persistence. It requires persistence at public worship, persistence with personal devotions, persistence in Christian fellowship, persistence in attending prayer meetings, persistence in obedience when Jesus is unpopular, as well as persistence in personal prayer.