Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It is laying hold of His willingness.
Martin LutherRead
When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, 'Repent,' he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that repentance is a continual process in the life of a believer.
Martin Luther's quote underscores the profound significance of repentance in the Christian faith, suggesting that it is not merely a single act but a continuous way of living for believers. This perspective calls for an ongoing reflection and return to God, encouraging individuals to recognize their shortcomings and seek spiritual growth throughout their lives.
In practice
In a sermon discussing the importance of spiritual growth among believers.
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.
If we had the power of ten Shakespeares or a dozen Mozarts, we could not produce anything half so marvelous as one ordinary human child.
Reason transformed into prejudice is the worst form of prejudice, because reason is the only instrument for liberation from prejudice.
My deeply held belief is that if a god of anything like the traditional sort exists, our curiosity and intelligence is provided by such a God. We would be unappreciative of that gift if we suppressed our passion to explore the universe and ourselves.
Only the children know what they are looking for. They waste their time over a rag doll and it becomes very important to them; and if anybody takes it away from them, they cry.
You enter the extraordinary by way of the ordinary
The unrealistic nature of these tales (which narrowminded rationalists object to) is an important device, because it makes obvious that the fairy talesβ concern is not useful information about the external world, but the inner process taking place in an individual.
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