Just because our prayers begin with “Our Father” and end with “in Jesus’s name” doesn’t mean all the words in the middle flow easily. Sometimes, even those awake to the wonder of prayer face discouraging difficulties: internal struggle, outward resistance, perhaps even a sense of divine silence. And while such difficulties can reflect something wrong within — a heart overgrown with worldly cares (Luke 8:14) or hiding unconfessed sin (Psalm 66:18) — Jesus’s teaching on prayer is striking for its realism.

Most mornings, it seems, I forget how to pray. Or I at least seem to forget what prayer really is — what’s really happening in these quiet moments before an open Bible and a hearing God. I may stumble through my thanksgivings and petitions, but apart from some daily remembering, my prayers, like hapless pilgrims in a Bunyan allegory, tend to fall into the slough of distraction, or get locked in the castle of discouragement, or fall asleep on the enchanted ground.
In his book on prayer, Tim Keller writes of the need to “take ourselves in hand and wake ourselves up to the magnitude of what is going to happen” as we pray (Prayer, 127). Before unthinkingly mumbling “Heavenly Father” or “Lord,” pause, take your soul in hand, and remember the wonder of prayer.
And one of the best ways we can remember is by listening to what Jesus himself says about prayer. So much of our Lord’s teaching on prayer is designed to help us “always to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). In the Gospels, Jesus comes to pray-ers like us — discouraged, distracted, willing in spirit but weak in flesh — and he gives us a heart to pray. Of the many reminders we could mention, consider four representative lessons.
1. We come to a Father.
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven . . .” (Matthew 6:9)
Michael Reeves notes how prone we can be to treat prayer “as an abstract activity, a ‘thing to do,’” rather than remembering “the one to whom [we’re] praying” (Enjoy Your Prayer Life, 30). Prayer easily becomes impersonal: “to pray” is to run down a list of names, sit or kneel in such and such place for so long, drive in the old familiar ruts of phrases said ten thousand times. But most fundamentally, prayer is not an abstract activity or a habit or even a spiritual discipline; prayer is a personal response to a personal God — a God whom Jesus told us to call Father.
The wonder of this word often escapes us; it would not have escaped the disciples. They had never called God Father before, except in the broadest sense (Exodus 4:22–23; Hosea 11:1). To address God as “our Father in heaven,” to mimic Jesus’s own affectionate “Abba” — this was astoundingly, wonderfully new. When those who trust in Jesus come to pray, we come to a Father.
And what a Father he is. He knows our inmost thought and need, yet still he loves to hear us unburden our souls before him (Matthew 6:8, 32). His ear always open, his eye always upon us, he turns our ordinary rooms and closets into sanctuaries of communion (Matthew 6:6). He’s the archetype and fountain of all fatherly generosity, distributing good gifts with both hands (Matthew 7:9–11).
But perhaps the most heart-awakening words Jesus spoke about the Father are those in John 16:27: “The Father himself loves you.” “Here is something to say to ourselves every day,” Sinclair Ferguson writes of these five words. “They are simple words, but life-changing, peace-giving, poise-creating” — and, we might add, prayer-inspiring (Lessons from the Upper Room, 174).
2. Jesus perfects our prayers.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. (John 16:23)
Throughout his ministry, Jesus showed supreme patience with requests that others would have silenced. When the crowds hushed the blind and shouting Bartimaeus, Jesus called him over (Mark 10:47–49).
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Hills and Plains Presbytery approved an overture at a March 5, 2022 Called Meeting, asking the 49th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America to “amend BCO 16 by adding a new paragraph using wording from the Report of the Ad Interim Committee on Human Sexuality.”

The Overture presents proposed wording to amend BCO 16 by adding a fourth paragraph using wording from the Report of the Ad Interim Committee on Human Sexuality (AIC). The overture argues that since the 48th General Assembly in 2021 voted unanimously to commend the Human Sexuality Report, it seems appropriate to ask the 49th General Assembly to approve wording to add to BCO 16. The proposed wording provides the following:
BCO 16–4. Officers in the Presbyterian Church in America, though sound in the faith and living lives according to godliness, are well served when they can be honest about both their present fallen realities and their hope for sanctification. Their goal is not just consistent fleeing from, and regular resistance to, temptation, but the diminishment and even the end of the occurrences of sinful desires. Desires that are inconsistent with God’s design are to be resisted and mortified, not celebrated or accommodated. To juxtapose identities rooted in sinful desires alongside the term Christian is inconsistent with biblical language and undermines the spiritual reality that they are new creations in Christ. Sometimes there are disagreements about language even when the underlying doctrinal commitments seem to be the same, and how persons express themselves is not finally determinative of their identity.
An overture is a means by which a Presbytery can bring a matter to the GA for consideration. This overture will be considered by the 49th PCA General Assembly at its meeting in Birmingham, Ala., June 20-24, 2022.
OVERTURE from Hills and Plains Presbytery“Amend BCO 16 Adding a New Paragraph Using Wordingfrom the Report of the Ad Interim Committee on Human Sexuality”
Whereas, the Sacred Scriptures instruct us how to walk and to please God, abstaining from sexual immorality and controlling our bodies with holiness and honor (1 Thess. 4:1–5); and
Whereas, the Apostle Paul exhorts Timothy to fight the good fight of faith and to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness (1 Tim. 6:11–12); and
Whereas, overseers must be above reproach (1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:6, 7) and holy (Titus 1:8), and well thought of by outsiders (1 Tim. 3:7); and
Whereas, deacons must be dignified (1 Tim. 3:8) and serve if they prove themselves blameless (1 Tim. 3:10); and
Whereas, the Book of Church Order declares that everyone “whom God calls to bear office in His Church . . . should be sound in the faith, and his life be according to godliness” (BCO 16-3); and
Whereas, the Ad Interim Committee on Human Sexuality of TE Dr. Bryan Chapell, TE Dr. Kevin DeYoung, TE Dr. Tim Keller, TE Dr. Jim Weidenaar, RE Dr. Derek Halvorson, RE Mr. Kyle Keating, and RE Mr. Jim Pocta, studied issues assigned to it by the 47th General Assembly in 2019; and
Whereas, the Ad Interim Committee on Human Sexuality released the Report of the Ad Interim Committee on Human Sexuality in 2020; and
Whereas, overture 38 to “Commend the Human Sexuality Report,” unanimously adopted by Calvary Presbytery, was answered in the affirmative by a show of hands at the 48th General Assembly in 2021; and
Whereas, the AIC Report says, “Christians are well-served when they can be honest about both their present fallen realities and their hope for sanctification” (p. 28); and
Whereas, the AIC Report says, “The goal is not just consistent fleeing from, and regular resistance to, temptation, but the diminishment and even the end of the occurrences of sinful desires through the reordering of the loves of one’s heart toward Christ” (p. 10); and
Whereas, the AIC Report says, “Desires that are inconsistent with God’s design are to be resisted and mortified, not celebrated or accommodated” (p. 28); and
Whereas, the AIC Report says, “To juxtapose identities rooted in sinful desires alongside the term ‘Christian’ is inconsistent with Biblical language and undermines the spiritual reality that we are new creations in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17)” (p. 11);
Whereas, the AIC Report says, “Sometimes there are disagreements about language even when the underlying doctrinal commitments seem to be the same. . . . For these reasons, how persons express themselves is not finally determinative of their identity” (p. 29);
Therefore, be it resolved that Hills and Plains Presbytery (PCA) overture the 49th General Assembly to amend the Book of Church Order chapter 16 by the addition of the following paragraph (underlining for new wording):
BCO 16–4. Officers in the Presbyterian Church in America, though sound in the faith and living lives according to godliness, are well served when they can be honest about both their present fallen realities and their hope for sanctification. Their goal is not just consistent fleeing from, and regular resistance to, temptation, but the diminishment and even the end of the occurrences of sinful desires. Desires that are inconsistent with God’s design are to be resisted and mortified, not celebrated or accommodated. To juxtapose identities rooted in sinful desires alongside the term Christian is inconsistent with biblical language and undermines the spiritual reality that they are new creations in Christ. Sometimes there are disagreements about language even when the underlying doctrinal commitments seem to be the same, and how persons express themselves is not finally determinative of their identity.
Approved by Hills and Plains Presbytery at a Called Meeting on March 5, 2022Attested by Wesley D. Martin, Stated Clerk

Written by R.C. Sproul |
Friday, September 6, 2024
The great danger is that we make ourselves the center of concern, and we steal the glory of God. In all that we do, the driving passion of the Christian must always be Soli Deo Gloria, to God alone be the glory. And the only way for this passion to be realized is to honor God as God, to understand Him as He has revealed Himself in His Word and not according to the mere opinions of fallen creatures.

At the church I co-pastor, Saint Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, Florida, we are deliberate about making sure that both our church members and visitors understand the doctrinal basis of our fellowship. As a small way of helping to further that end, we note in our church bulletin every Sunday morning that “we affirm the solas of the Protestant Reformation.”
By way of reminder, the five solas are five points that summarize the biblical theology recovered and proclaimed during the Protestant Reformation. As we note in our bulletin, these five solas are:

Sola Scriptura: The Bible is the sole written divine revelation and alone can bind the conscience of the believer absolutely.
Sola Fide: Justification is by faith alone. The merit of Christ, imputed to us by faith, is the sole ground of our acceptance by God, by which our sins are remitted, and imputed to Christ.
Solus Christus: Christ is the only mediator through whose work we are redeemed.
Sola Gratia: Our salvation rests solely on the work of God’s grace for us.
Soli Deo Gloria: To God alone belongs the glory.

Each sola is important, but the first four really exist to preserve the last one, namely, the glory of God. By sola Scriptura, we declare the glory of God’s authority by noting that only His inspired Word can command us absolutely. Sola fide, solus Christus, and sola gratia all exalt God’s glory in salvation. God and God alone—through His Son, Jesus Christ—saves His people from sin and death.
We need the glory of God to be reinforced because it is the hardest truth of all for people to accept. The refusal to glorify God in an appropriate and proper way is basic to our corrupt state. As Paul says in his penetrating description of human fallenness in Romans 1: “They did not honor him as God” (Rom. 1:21).
So often when we talk about God, we describe Him in such a way that He isn’t recognizable as the God of the Bible.
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