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Can These Bones Live?

Everyday Prayer with John Calvin
Donald K. McKim

My vocational passion in recent years has been to introduce laypersons in the church to major

themes of important theologians. The approach is to take a quotation from the theologian and

write a short devotional reflection to explain the quotation and explore its meaning for Christian

faith and life today. While most people will not seek out the writings of these theologians for

themselves, there is a possibility they would use a devotional book which can introduce them to

theologians’ key theological ideas.

My purpose in this is to respond to the question in the book of Ezekiel: God asked

Ezekiel: “Can these bones live?” (Ezekiel 37:3). Can the ideas of these theologians from long

ago have power and meaning—can they help us today? Or: “Can these “bones” live?”

My conviction is that these “bones” can live today. Theological understandings from

classical theologians can inform us and inspire us in our Christian lives today. They can help

deepen our faith and our devotion to God in Jesus Christ. God’s Spirit can use theological

insights to help us be more faithful followers of Jesus Christ and strengthen our commitments to

serving God in the church and in the world. These theological convictions can comfort us and

challenge us. They can bring faith alive in meaningful ways. Yes, these “bones” can live!

Everyday Prayer with John Calvin explores the teachings of John Calvin about prayer.

Prayer is basic to the Christian life. Prayer is the heartbeat of our faith! Calvin wrote the longest

chapter in his Institutes of the Christian Religion on prayer. His biblical commentaries were full

of comments about prayer as we find people praying throughout the Scriptures. Calvin himself
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was a person of prayer and this book includes some of Calvin’s own prayers. By reflecting on

Calvin’s comments on prayers and exploring what they can mean for our faith today, we can

grow in our understandings of prayer as well as in our practice of prayer.

My suggestion on using the devotions is to follow four steps:

Read the Scripture passage and the devotion based on the quotation from

Calvin.

Meditate on the devotion, including what Calvin wrote and what his

insights can mean for your own life of prayer.

Pray to God, using the insights of the devotion to direct your prayers. For

many devotions, a Prayer Point is provided.

Act on where the devotional insights and your own prayer direct you

toward with new visions, directions, and actions.

I trust these four steps can enhance and deepen understandings and commitment to

prayer. Since prayer is eminently participatory—learning about prayer is no substitute for

actually praying!

My hope is that through study of John Calvin’s teachings on prayer, a stronger

sense of the importance and significance of prayer will emerge. Calvin defined prayer as

“conversation with God.” My prayer is that this book will enable our conversations with

God to take on fuller meaning as we understand prayer more profoundly and practice

prayer more devotedly.