Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It is laying hold of His willingness.
Martin LutherRead
Truly, if faith is there, the believer cannot hold back... he breaks out into good works.
Interpretation
Faith inspires action and leads to positive deeds.
This quote by Martin Luther emphasizes the transformative power of genuine faith. When an individual truly believes, it compels them to express that belief through actions, primarily by engaging in good works that reflect their faith and values.
In practice
In a motivational speech about community service, one might say, 'Remember, truly, if faith is there, the believer cannot hold back... he breaks out into good works.'
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.
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
...maximize the serendipity around you.
God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters.
Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
Just when the truth about life sinks in, His truth starts to surface. He takes us by the hand and dares us not to sweep the facts under the rug but to confront them with him at our side.
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