Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It is laying hold of His willingness.
Martin LutherRead
Some plague the people with too long sermons; for the faculty of listening is a tender thing, and soon becomes weary and satiated.
Interpretation
Long sermons can overwhelm listeners, causing them to lose interest.
In this quote, Martin Luther expresses the idea that lengthy sermons can be burdensome for audiences, as people have a limited capacity for attention and engagement. He emphasizes the importance of being mindful of the listeners' endurance, suggesting that brevity and conciseness are vital for effective communication, especially in educational or inspirational contexts.
In practice
A speaker could reference this quote when discussing techniques for effective public speaking in a workshop.
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.
School is a twelve-year jail sentence where bad habits are the only curriculum truly learned.
It is essential that we enable young people to see themselves as participants in one of the most exciting eras in history, and to have a sense of purpose in relation to it.
Writing nonfiction has been my most serious education, and for all those years it kept me from even glancing in the direction of despair.
Growing up, books were my lifeline, and I owe a debt to those writers that can never be repaid. They saved my sanity and gave me a world I could escape to. If I can pay that forward to another person, that's all I ask.
Once children learn how to learn, nothing is going to narrow their mind. The essence of teaching is to make learning contagious, to have one idea spark another.
Wouldn't it be great if we could look forward to a whole world in which no child will be left behind?
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