RFPA Blog News

Requirements of True Prayer (3): Humility and Confidence

Sincerity and humility, closely connected. Our coming to God in sincerity of heart is that we humble ourselves before God in prayer. This then is the second requirement of acceptable prayer according to the 117th Answer: that we rightly and thoroughly know our need and misery, so we may deeply humble ourselves in the presence of his divine majesty.

Requirements of True Prayer (2): Sincerity

We continue from part one of this series titled “In the School of Prayer: The Requirements of True Prayer.” Read part one here. When we pray, we are, first of all, called to pray to God sincerely. That's the first requirement of prayer, and we cannot go on to requirements 2 and 3 without first noticing this requirement: sincerity. Sincerity is underscored in Lord's Day 45. That was the teaching already of Question and Answer 116.

Requirements of True Prayer (1): An Introduction

A book by Herman Hoeksema on prayer

I must know him, the only true God, in order to be able to pray at all. But I cannot know him out of myself, I cannot find him out...Only he can make known to me who he is, and what he is. Hence I must begin to let him speak to me before I can even begin to speak to him. This he does in his word, in the holy scriptures.—In the Sanctuary, p. 12

Using the perfect model prayer given by Jesus, this book teaches the requirements of a true prayer. The author explains that because prayer is given to us by the Holy Spirit and because it is a time of fellowship with God in his sanctuary, we must pray in a God-honoring way.

How's your prayer life?

How many Christians can confidently say that they have “mastered” the art of prayer? Probably no one.What is blessedly refreshing about Professor Hanko’s work, When You Pray, is his admission that none of us is good at prayer—including himself—yet over the years of one’s life, the author assures us, a person can make progress in praying.Professor Hanko shares with his readers homely yet highly meaningful lessons he learned from growing up in a covenant family and covenantal church community. He also tells the specific benefits...

Our first audio book!

The RFPA has received many requests over the years to produce audio books, so we are excited to finally share with you the production of our first audio book: When You Pray.

What is blessedly refreshing about Professor Hanko’s work, When You Pray, is his admission that none of us is good at prayer—including himself—yet over the years of one’s life, the author assures us, a person can make progress in praying.

You spoke and we listened!

The RFPA has received many requests over the years to produce audio books, so we are excited to finally share with you the production of our first audio book: When You Pray.

What is blessedly refreshing about Professor Hanko’s work, When You Pray, is his admission that none of us is good at prayer—including himself—yet over the years of one’s life, the author assures us, a person can make progress in praying.

The Church Prayer Meeting

Church prayer meetings are not commonly held in our Protestant Reformed Churches, in fact they are not very common as far as we know in any of the Reformed Churches. They have long been a tradition in Presbyterian Churches as well as a number of other churches. There are those who claim that they were regularly held in the church from the time of the apostles. We have had the opportunity to experience such meetings during our labors as missionaries in the Evangelical Reformed Church of Singapore. These prayer meetings were already an institution in what was then the Gospel Literature and Tract Society (G.L.T.S.) when we came to Singapore. We found these prayer meetings to be a great source of blessing both to the church as a whole and to ourselves personally. It is our purpose in this article to tell you something about these meetings. We want also to consider some of the biblical bases for holding such meetings. Finally, we want to relate some of what we can see to be the great blessings these meetings afford the church. It is our conviction that we as Protestant Reformed Churches can learn from these meetings and that we could well consider holding similar meetings in our own midst.

Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life: Devotions in Marriage

A suffering marriage can be explained by many issues: lack of communication, squabbling over finances, a severe trial that has driven a wedge between the spouses, sharp personality differences, disagreement over childrearing, etc. But I wonder if most marriage problems, if not all, grow from one basic root: prayerlessness. Satan is working feverishly hard to break up marriages—is that not evident today? The devil knows well how quickly a marriage without prayer and scripture spirals downward.

Do you value your marriage? Search the scriptures with your spouse. Do you desire a strong relationship? Pray with your spouse. This is one of the disciplines of the Christian life.

Here are some practical guidelines for approaching this worship within marriage.

Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life: Praying in Personal Devotions

I provide below some guidelines, this time for individual prayer. The list is not exhaustive. I encourage the reader to add more guidelines.

1. find a good place

2. choose the right time

3. color your prayers with God's Word

4. address personal needs

5. pray from the heart

Such a prayer life requires discipline. Such worship of God requires commitment and resolve. Consistent, heartfelt prayer is hard work, and not without its challenges, as any child of God will testify. But God will give grace. Pray for that grace—the grace to pray! Pray, for prayer is “the chief part of thankfulness which God requires of us; and also, because God will give his grace and Holy Spirit to those only who with sincere desires continually ask them of him, and are thankful for them” (Lord’s Day 45, A. 116).

Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life: Challenges

We want to notice the internal and external challenges to this pursuit of godliness, and thus the need to persevere in these spiritual disciplines. I present here three such challenges (laziness, busyness, and the entertainment and technology craze); I am sure you can add to the list...

The calling of the Word of God is clear: as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, as one running the race of this life, persevere. Be disciplined, committed, and consistent in the study of the scriptures and in prayer. This is necessary in the life of the child of God—this concerns our spiritual health and strength! We must be strong to serve our God, strong to fight against sin, and strong to live faithfully in the calling that God has given to each of us.

A New Year's Prayer

Come, Lord Jesus. We wait upon Thee as watchers wait for the morning. In the meantime, our God, establish Thou the work of our hands. Preserve and defend us over against all the onslaughts of the powers of darkness. Give us Thy grace to realize that with Thee we are always the victors. Use us, Thy willing servants, according to the talents entrusted to us, in the midst of our families, in the midst of Thy people, in a present evil world, wherever Thou...