Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It is laying hold of His willingness.
Martin LutherRead
Everything that is done in the world is done by hope. No merchant or tradesman would set himself to work if he did not hope to reap benefit thereby.
Interpretation
Hope drives action and effort in all endeavors.
Martin Luther emphasizes the vital role hope plays in motivating individuals to take action and engage in work. He suggests that without the expectation of future benefits, such as profit or success, people would lack the incentive to pursue their activities, whether in commerce or any other aspect of life.
In practice
In a motivational speech about pursuing dreams.
Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It is laying hold of His willingness.
Now if I believe in God's Son and remember that He became man, all creatures will appear a hundred times more beautiful to me than before. Then I will properly appreciate the sun, the moon, the stars, trees, apples, as I reflect that he is Lord over all things. ...God writes the Gospel, not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.
It is the part of a Christian to take care of his own body for the very purpose that, by its soundness and wellbeing, he may be enabled to labour, and to acquire and preserve property, for the aid of those who are in want, that thus the stronger member may serve the weaker member, and we may be children of God, and busy for one another, bearing one another's burdens, and so fulfiling the law of Christ.
Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but more frequently than not struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God.
We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.
In a mouse we admire God's creation and craft work. The same may be said about flies.
Any fool may write a most valuable book by chance, if he will only tell us what he heard and saw with veracity.
The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach - waiting for a gift from the sea.
No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.
Drag your thoughts away from your troubles... by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.
In the end I do respond to my own instincts. Sometimes they're successful, and obviously sometimes they're not. But you have to, I think, remain true to what you believe in.
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.