At the Feet of the Fathers: Luther on Praying Good Prayers
At the Feet of the Fathers
Monday, October 31, 2022
The Five-hundred and Fifth Anniversary of the Reformation
Dr. Martin Luther On Praying Good Prayers
To begin with, two things are necessary so that a prayer is good and so that it is heard. First, we must have a promise or a pledge from God. We must reflect on this promise and remind God of it, and in that way be emboldened to pray with confidence. If God had not commanded us to pray and if God had not promised fulfillment, no creature would be able to obtain so much as a kernel of grain despite all his petitions.
It follows from this that not one of us obtains anything from God by our own virtue or the worthiness of our prayer, but solely by reason of the boundless mercy of God, who, by anticipating all our prayers and desires, induces us through a gracious promise and assurance to petition and to ask so that we might learn how much more God provides for us and how God is more willing to give than we to take or to seek. God wants to encourage us to pray with confidence, since God offers us more than we are able to ask for.
Second, it is necessary that we never doubt the promise of the truthful and faithful God. For this very purpose God promises us a hearing, yes, the reason God commands us to pray is so we will be filled with a sure and firm faith that we will be heard. Thus God declares in Matt. 21[:22] and in Mark 11[:24], “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you certainly will.” And in Luke 11[:9–13] he says, “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Where among you is a son who asks his father for bread, only to have him give him a stone? Or if he asks him for a fish, his father gives him a snake? Or if he asks for an egg, who gives him a scorpion? If you then, who are not good, are yet able to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the good Spirit to those who ask him?” We should cheerfully rely on these and similar promises and commands and pray with true confidence.
Third, if people pray while doubting God’s fulfillment, if they pray without certainty in whether or not their prayer is fulfilled, they make two mistakes. First, they destroy their own prayer and labor in vain. Thus we read in St. James 1[:6–8], “He who would ask of God, let him so ask that there is no doubt in his faith, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven back and forth by the wind. That person must not suppose that he will receive anything from God.” James means that God cannot give anything to such a person because that person’s heart is unstable. Faith, however, keeps the heart firm and makes it receptive to all God’s gifts.
The other mistake is that such people regard their very faithful and truthful God as a liar and as fickle and unreliable, neither able nor willing to keep promises. Thus through their doubts they rob God of his honor and of his reputation for faithfulness and truth. This sin is so grave that it changes people from Christians into heathens, into people who deny and lose their own God. If they persist in this, they will be eternally and hopelessly damned. And if something for which they prayed is granted them, this does not redound to their salvation, but to their temporal and eternal harm. It is not the result of their prayer, but of the wrath of God, who thus rewards the good words which were spoken in sin, unbelief, and divine dishonor.
Haemig, Mary Jane. 1519. “A Sermon on Prayer and Procession during Rogation Days.” In Pastoral Writings, edited by Hans J. Hillerbrand, Kirsi I. Stjerna, Timothy J. Wengert, and Mary Jane Haemig, 4:151–53. The Annotated Luther. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.