Calvin: instant recourse to God

Wednesday, March 29, 2017
    Commemoration of Jack Winslow, Missionary, Evangelist, 1974
Meditation:
I love the LORD, because he has heard
    my voice and my pleas for mercy.
Because he inclined his ear to me,
    therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
    —Psalm 116:1-2 (ESV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    It must be our anxious care, whenever we are ourselves pressed, or see others pressed by any trial, instantly to have recourse to God. And again, in any prosperity of ourselves or others, we must not omit to testify our recognition of God’s hand by praise and thanksgiving. Lastly, we must in all our prayers carefully avoid wishing to confine God to certain circumstances, or prescribe to him the time, place, or mode of action. In like manner, we are taught by [the Lord’s] prayer not to fix any law or impose any condition upon him, but leave it entirely to him to adopt whatever course of procedure seems to him best, in respect of method, time, and place. For, before we offer up any petition for ourselves, we ask that his will may be done, and by so doing place our will in subordination to his, just as if we had laid a curb upon it, that, instead of presuming to give law to God, it may regard him as the ruler and disposer of all its wishes.
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. II, tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, III.xx.50, p. 138 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 116:1-2; Matt. 6:9-13; 26:42; Rom. 12:2; 1 Thess. 5:18
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are always within reach of my prayers. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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