J. Gary Millar, Calling on the Name of the Lord: A Biblical Theology of Prayer (New Studies in Biblical Theology), 17).

“What follows in these pages is an exposition of the fact that prayer in the Bible is intimately linked with the gospel—God’s promised and provided solution to the problem of human rebellion against him and its consequences. The gospel shape of prayer is evident from the opening pages of the Bible—and in particular from the first mention of prayer in Genesis 4:26, when people first begin to ‘call on the name of Yahweh’—right through to the end, when the church prays, ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’ (see Rev. 22:20).

This study will follow the contours of the Bible’s teaching on prayer. After defining prayer as ‘calling on the name of the Lord’, my intention is simply to demonstrate how the biblical material builds on this basic understanding. … .

Initially the focus will be on showing how ‘calling on the name of Yahweh’, or prayer that asks God to deliver on his covenantal promises, is the foundation for all that the Old Testament says about prayer. On moving to the New Testament it will become apparent how calling on the name of Yahweh is redefined by Jesus himself, and how, after his death and resurrection, the apostles understood praying in the name of Jesus to be the new covenant expression of calling on the name of Yahweh. Prayer throughout the Bible, it will be argued, is to be primarily understood as asking God to come through on what he has already promised; as Calvin expressed it, ‘through the Gospel our hearts are trained to call on God’s name’.”