Prayer: the Means to Abide

Written by Drew Hoekema

“The task of the dogmatician is to think God’s thoughts after him and to trace their unity. This is a task that must be done in the confidence that God has spoken, in humble submission to the church’s teaching tradition, and for communicating the gospel’s message to the world.”

So goes the introduction to Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics (Bavinck, Herman, Reformed Dogmatics vol. 1 Prolegomena p 25). The phrase “to think God’s thoughts after him” had great impact on me from the moment I first heard it during seminary. As the Presbyterians confess, the chief end of man is to glorify God, and therefore the chief end of the theologian is to think God’s thoughts after Him.

Of course, another great Reformed theologian later built his entire ministry on the truth that “everyone is a theologian” (R.C. Sproul). Every single person makes conclusions about God and what He is like. These sorts of beliefs undergird the very existence of The Abide Project. As the Christian Reformed Church has sought to discern theology in the area of human sexuality, just as any other, Abide is aiming to help both pastor and church member alike think God’s thoughts after him, in humble submission to the church’s teaching tradition and for communicating the gospel’s message to the world.

I hasten to add a component that can often be overlooked in this pursuit: the task of prayer. While it is certain that we think God’s thoughts after Him through study of His word, this must be done in conjunction with a zealous seeking of His face in prayer.

What I am not saying, however, is that we must pray for the primary purpose of reforming or reviving the church. This confuses the end of prayer. While reformation and revival are good and certainly worth praying for, and indeed can only come about through prayer, it is a mistake to use prayer merely as the lever to achieve what we want. Is it good to want those things? Yes. Is it good to pray for them? Yes. But is prayer merely the means to getting them? No.

Reformation and revival happen as byproducts. They are the side effects, you might say, of what prayer truly is: the means of abiding in Christ. Just as I have started to think very much like my wife through ten years of conversation and life together, we can only think God’s thoughts after Him through conversation with Him.

Parallel to the “earth-bound” lane of Scripture, prayer serves as the “God-bound” lane. As we seek the face of God, it is then, as we find ourselves delighting in His presence, that we become accustomed to thinking His thoughts after Him.

As I have meditated on some of the texts recounting Christ’s final week leading up to His death, I was struck by a seemingly obvious point from the Garden of Gethsemane. He had gone there to pray. What Jesus needed most, on the doorstep of his death by crucifixion, was to pray. And during that time, we have the mysterious request, impossible to fully comprehend: “Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” It is in prayer that the Son, at the most challenging point in His life, seeks the Father’s face in order to abide in His purposes, and then to carry out His earthly purpose faithfully.

We follow in Christ’s footsteps. Prayer is the essential means for the end of abiding in Him, and thinking His thoughts after Him. And as a bonus, His power and grace may revive and reform the church we love, if it be His will.

This is why the Abide Project includes a prayer component. Each Tuesday, at noon ET/9 PT, we meet to seek God’s face together. We always love to have more people and new people praying with us. If you’d like to know more, visit the ‘prayer’ page to sign up or email our prayer team.

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