Ain’t No Wet Nurse

Browse around on a preacher’s shelf, and you will likely find a couple of books.  They might be well worn or slightly covered with dust, and they do little to tempt your curiosity.  Calvin.  The author’s name alone conjures up exaggerated images of overly pious religious zealots.   Your eyes drift  to the title which doesn’t offer much persuasion either-  INSTITUTES.   As if Calvin doesn’t conjure up enough negative thoughts, this book is graced with an even stodgier and drier title- Institutes.  Thanks, but-uh- no thanks. If I want a nap I'll read the Encylopedia Britannica.  Surely there isn’t anything in those dusty books to breathe life and meaning into my own spiritual questions, struggles, doubts, and despair??

Well...maybe there is.  If you have the books on your shelf, pull them down.  If you don’t have them,  consider borrowing them from a library or  friend.  If you really don’t care but have still read this far, then hang with me and read a little (very loosely) translated Calvin from my perspective.  Because anyone who can say “God ain’t a wet nurse” in a few fancier French words is, well, not completely boring.

Below is my own 'Little' summary of a few of Calvin’s thoughts on Prayer from Book 3 Chapter XX. (Calvin lovers..grant me a little grace here!)

1. If you believe in God then you’re going to want to talk to Him
2. In prayer you get to experience God and call Him to reveal himself to you
3. Wait a minute... is God some Jack & the Beanstalk giant that I need to “wake up” by prayer?  Do I need to ‘remind’ him to notice me?  No!, Calvin says, and here are six reasons you NEED to pray.

1. A Safe Anchor: As you pray your heart will gain a burning desire to love, seek, and serve God.  Plus, at the same time, you’ll sort of get in the habit to run to Him as your safe anchor.
2. You need not feel any shame in his presence as you practice setting all your desires and wishes before him in the pouring out of your heart.
3. That we would receive things in our lives as gifts with hearts of gratitude.  Praying reminds us that everything comes from His hand.
4. Now that you know all those blessings in your life are because of God, you can think about how kind He is and worship him even more.
5. You’ll grab a hold of life with a little more zeal and with eyes to rejoice as you see what has been gained by prayer.
6. Praying, as you do it more and more, will help confirm to you that God’s promises will never fail you and when you most need Him he opens the way to call on Him at that very point that you need Him.  And as God reaches to you with his kind hand he doesn’t just “wet nurse (you) with words” but “he defends” with “present help.”  Pretty much, God doesn’t treat you like a little baby that needs to be suckled with empty words but defends you with real, true, and present power. 

Okay, great, you say, but what about all my prayers that haven’t been answered?  I’ve tried all that, so why don’t I perceive any fruit from praying?  Hang in!, says Calvin, and patiently wait for the Lord.  He writes (and I quote his real words here instead of the Caroline version),

 “He is always present to us, and will in his own time declare how he has never had ears deaf to the prayers that in men’s eyes he seems to have neglected...for the Lord so often and so certainly promises to care for us in our troubles, when they have once been laid upon his bosom...for though all things fail us, yet God will never forsake us, who cannot disappoint the expectation and patience of his people.  He alone will be for us in place of all things, since all good things are contained in him and he will reveal them to us...” (Institutes Book 3, Chapter 20:51-52).