Prayer as Means of Grace
we can say that prayer is a means of grace because it is one of God’s chosen means or instruments for achieving his gracious purposes. Christ is the great example of this, praying for his Father’s will to be done and praying for his disciples, both during his earthly ministry and now as he sits in heaven. These prayers of Christ are not a piece of theater. They are part of God’s chosen means of bringing about his will on earth.
Carl Trueman, Grace Alone: Salvation as a Gift of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2017), 226