Part Third. OF PRAYER.
The Lord's Prayer.
We have now heard what we must do and believe, in
which things the best and happiest life consists. Now follows the third part,
how we ought to pray. For since we are so situated that no man can perfectly
keep the Ten Commandments, even though he have begun to believe, and since the
devil with all his power together with the world and our own flesh, resists our
endeavors, nothing is so necessary as that we should continually resort to the
ear of God, call upon Him, and pray to Him, that He would give, preserve, and
increase in us faith and the fulfilment of the Ten Commandments, and that He
would remove everything that is in our way and opposes us therein. But that we
might know what and how to pray, our Lord Christ has Himself taught us both the
mode and the words, as we shall see.
But before we explain the Lord's Prayer part by
part, it is most necessary first to exhort and incite people to prayer, as
Christ and the apostles also have done. And the first matter is to know that it
is our duty to pray because of God's commandment. For thus we heard in the
Second Commandment: Thou shalt not take the name of the lord, thy God, in vain,
that we are there required to praise that holy name, and call upon it in every
need, or to pray. For to call upon the name of God is nothing else than to
pray. Prayer is therefore as strictly and earnestly commanded as all other
commandments: to have no other God, not to kill, not to steal, etc. Let no one
think that it is all the same whether he pray or not, as vulgar people do, who
grope in such delusion and ask Why should I pray? Who knows whether God heeds
or will hear my prayer? If I do not pray, some one else will. And thus they
fall into the habit of never praying, and frame a pretext, as though we taught
that there is no duty or need of prayer, because we reject false and
hypocritical prayers.
But this is true indeed that such prayers as have
been offered hitherto when men were babbling and bawling in the churches were
no prayers. For such external matters, when they are properly observed, may be
a good exercise for young children, scholars, and simple persons, and may be
called singing or reading, but not really praying. But praying, as the Second
Commandment teaches, is to call upon God in every need. This He requires of us,
and has not left it to our choice. But it is our duty and obligation to pray if
we would be Christians, as much as it is our duty and obligation to obey our
parents and the government; for by calling upon it and praying the name of God
is honored and profitably employed. This you must note above all things, that
thereby you may silence and repel such thoughts as would keep and deter us from
prayer. For just as it would be idle for a son to say to his father, "Of what
advantage is my obedience? I will go and do what I can; it is all the same";
but there stands the commandment, Thou shalt and must do it, so also here it is
not left to my will to do it or leave it undone, but prayer shall and must be
offered at the risk of God's wrath and displeasure.
This is therefore to be understood and noted
before everything else, in order that thereby we may silence and repel the
thoughts which would keep and deter us from praying, as though it were not of
much consequence if we do not pray, or as though it were commanded those who
are holier and in better favor with God than we; as, indeed, the human heart is
by nature so despondent that it always flees from God and imagines that He does
not wish or desire our prayer, because we are sinners and have merited nothing
but wrath. Against such thoughts (I say) we should regard this commandment and
turn to God, that we may not by such disobedience excite His anger still more.
For by this commandment He gives us plainly to understand that He will not cast
us from Him nor chase us away, although we are sinners, but rather draw us to
Himself, so that we might humble ourselves before Him, bewail this misery and
plight of ours, and pray for grace and help. Therefore we read in the
Scriptures that He is angry also with those who were smitten for their sin,
because they did not return to Him and by their prayers assuage His wrath and
seek His grace.
Now, from the fact that it is so solemnly
commanded to pray, you are to conclude and think, that no one should by any
means despise his prayer, but rather set great store by it, and always seek an
illustration from the other commandments. A child should by no means despise
his obedience to father and mother, but should always think: This work is a
work of obedience, and what I do I do with no other intention than that I may
walk in the obedience and commandment of God, on which I can settle and stand
firm, and esteem it a great thing, not on account of my worthiness, but on
account of the commandment. So here also, what and for what we pray we should
regard as demanded by God and done in obedience to Him, and should reflect
thus: On my account it would amount to nothing; but it shall avail, for the
reason that God has commanded it. Therefore everybody, no matter what he has to
say in prayer, should always come before God in obedience to this
commandment.
We pray, therefore, and exhort every one most
diligently to take this to heart and by no means to despise our prayer. For
hitherto it has been taught thus in the devil's name that no one regarded these
things, and men supposed it to be sufficient to have done the work, whether God
would hear it or not. But that is staking prayer on a risk, and murmuring it at
a venture, and therefore it is a lost prayer. For we allow such thoughts as
these to lead us astray and deter us: I am not holy or worthy enough; if I were
as godly and holy as St. Peter or St. Paul, then I would pray. But put such
thoughts far away, for just the same commandment which applied to St. Paul
applies also to me; and the Second Commandment is given as much on my account
as on his account, so that he can boast of no better or holier commandment.
Therefore you should say: My prayer is as
precious, holy, and pleasing to God as that of St. Paul or of the most holy
saints. This is the reason: For I will gladly grant that he is holier in his
person, but not on account of the commandment; since God does not regard prayer
on account of the person, but on account of His word and obedience thereto. For
on the commandment on which all the saints rest their prayer I, too, rest mine.
Moreover I pray for the same thing for which they all pray and ever have
prayed; besides, I have just as great a need of it as those great saints, yea,
even a greater one than they.
Let this be the first and most important point,
that all our prayers must be based and rest upon obedience to God, irrespective
of our person, whether we be sinners or saints, worthy or unworthy. And we must
know that God will not have it treated as a jest, but be angry, and punish all
who do not pray, as surely as He punishes all other disobedience; next, that He
will not suffer our prayers to be in vain or lost. For if He did not intend to
answer your prayer, He would not bid you pray and add such a severe commandment
to it.
In the second place, we should be the more urged
and incited to pray because God has also added a promise, and declared that it
shall surely be done to us as we pray, as He says Ps. 50, 15: Call upon Me in
the day of trouble: I will deliver thee. And Christ in the Gospel of St.
Matthew, 7, 7: Ask, and it shall be given you. For every one that asketh
receiveth. Such promises ought certainly to encourage and kindle our hearts to
pray with pleasure and delight, since He testifies with His [own] word that our
prayer is heartily pleasing to Him, moreover, that it shall assuredly be heard
and granted, in order that we may not despise it or think lightly of it, and
pray at a venture.
This you can hold up to Him and say: Here I come,
dear Father, and pray, not of my own purpose nor upon my own worthiness, but at
Thy commandment and promise, which cannot fail or deceive me. Whoever,
therefore, does not believe this promise must know again that he excites God to
anger as a person who most highly dishonors Him and reproaches Him with
falsehood.
Besides this, we should be incited and drawn to
prayer because in addition to this commandment and promise God anticipates us,
and Himself arranges the words and form of prayer for us, and places them upon
our lips as to how and what we should pray, that we may see how heartily He
pities us in our distress, and may never doubt that such prayer is pleasing to
Him and shall certainly be answered; which [the Lord's Prayer] is a great
advantage indeed over all other prayers that we might compose ourselves. For in
them the conscience would ever be in doubt and say: I have prayed, but who
knows how it pleases Him, or whether I have hit upon the right proportions and
form? Hence there is no nobler prayer to be found upon earth than the Lord's
Prayer which we daily pray because it has this excellent testimony, that God
loves to hear it, which we ought not to surrender for all the riches of the
world.
And it has been prescribed also for this reason
that we should see and consider the distress which ought to urge and compel us
to pray without ceasing. For whoever would pray must have something to present,
state, and name which he desires; if not, it cannot be called a prayer.
Therefore we have rightly rejected the prayers of
monks and priests, who howl and growl day and night like fiends; but none of
them think of praying for a hair's breadth of anything. And if we would
assemble all the churches, together with all ecclesiastics, they would be
obliged to confess that they have never from the heart prayed for even a drop
of wine. For none of them has ever purposed to pray from obedience to God and
faith in His promise, nor has any one regarded any distress, but (when they had
done their best) they thought no further than this, to do a good work, whereby
they might repay God, as being unwilling to take anything from Him, but wishing
only to give Him something.
But where there is to be a true prayer there must
be earnestness. Men must feel their distress, and such distress as presses them
and compels them to call and cry out then prayer will be made spontaneously, as
it ought to be, and men will require no teaching how to prepare for it and to
attain to the proper devotion. But the distress which ought to concern us most,
both as regards ourselves and every one, you will find abundantly set forth in
the Lord's Prayer. Therefore it is to serve also to remind us of the same, that
we contemplate it and lay it to heart, lest we become remiss in prayer. For we
all have enough that we lack, but the great want is that we do not feel nor see
it. Therefore God also requires that you lament and plead such necessities and
wants, not because He does not know them, but that you may kindle your heart to
stronger and greater desires, and make wide and open your cloak to receive
much.
Therefore, every one of us should accustom
himself from his youth daily to pray for all his wants, whenever he is sensible
of anything affecting his interests or that of other people among whom he may
live, as for preachers, the government, neighbors, domestics, and always (as we
have said) to hold up to God His commandment and promise, knowing that He will
not have them disregarded. This I say because I would like to see these things
brought home again to the people that they might learn to pray truly, and not
go about coldly and indifferently, whereby they become daily more unfit for
prayer; which is just what the devil desires, and for what he works with all
his powers. For he is well aware what damage and harm it does him when prayer
is in proper practise. For this we must know, that all our shelter and
protection rest in prayer alone. For we are far too feeble to cope with the
devil and all his power and adherents that set themselves against us, and they
might easily crush us under their feet. Therefore we must consider and take up
those weapons with which Christians must be armed in order to stand against the
devil. For what do you think has hitherto accomplished such great things, has
checked or quelled the counsels, purposes, murder, and riot of our enemies,
whereby the devil thought to crush us, together with the Gospel, except that
the prayer of a few godly men intervened like a wall of iron on our side? They
should else have witnessed a far different tragedy, namely, how the devil would
have destroyed all Germany in its own blood. But now they may confidently
deride it and make a mock of it, however, we shall nevertheless be a match both
for themselves and the devil by prayer alone, if we only persevere diligently
and not become slack. For whenever a godly Christian prays: Dear Father let Thy
will be done, God speaks from on high and says: Yes, dear child, it shall be
so, in spite of the devil and all the world.
Let this be said as an exhortation, that men may
learn, first of all, to esteem prayer as something great and precious, and to
make a proper distinction between babbling and praying for something. For we by
no means reject prayer, but the bare, useless howling and murmuring we reject,
as Christ Himself also rejects and prohibits long palavers. Now we shall most
briefly and clearly treat of the Lord's Prayer. Here there is comprehended in
seven successive articles, or petitions, every need which never ceases to
relate to us, and each so great that it ought to constrain us to keep praying
it all our lives.