Die vornehmste Übung Gottes Majestät und das Gebet des Menschen nach Johannes Calvin

John Calvin invites and gives us the theological ingredients to rethink the relation between asking and receiving in prayer. Hence, one has to limit prayers in terms of what is possibly addressable to God; then, prayer has to be modally understood as practice that calls for something which is impossible for us because it is only possible for God; and finally, praying to God is to be leading life in God's reality – which is: in God Himself. Therefore, the believer does not pray to God, but is praying in His real presence; God does not exist beyond the act of praying, but is nothing other than the event of authentic prayer. If God is asked for something, He gives no less than Himself.