"To
prayer, then, are we indebted for penetrating to those riches which are
treasured up for us with our heavenly Father. For there is a kind of
intercourse between God and men, by which, having entered the upper sanctuary,
they appear before Him and appeal to his promises, that when necessity requires they
may learn by experiences that what they believed merely on the authority of his
word was not in vain.
"Accordingly, we see that nothing is set before us as an
object of expectation from the Lord which we are not enjoined to ask of Him in
prayer, so true it is that prayer digs up those treasures which the Gospel of
our Lord discovers to the eye of faith. The necessity and utility of this exercise
of prayer no words can sufficiently express. Assuredly it is not without cause
our heavenly Father declares that our only safety is in calling upon his name,
since by it we invoke the presence of his providence to watch over our
interests, of his power to sustain us when weak and almost fainting, of his
goodness to receive us into favor, though miserably loaded with sin; in
fine, call upon him to manifest himself to us in all his perfections.
"Hence,
admirable peace and tranquility are given to our consciences; for the straits
by which we were pressed being laid before the Lord, we rest fully satisfied
with the assurance that none of our evils are unknown to him, and that he is
both able and willing to make the best provision for us."
John Calvin, The Institutes
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