Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It is laying hold of His willingness.
Martin LutherRead
I compare it with a lie, which like to a snowball, the longer it is rolled the greater it becomes.
Interpretation
A lie grows larger over time and can become more damaging as it spreads.
Martin Luther's quote illustrates the nature of lies, comparing them to a snowball that gains size and momentum as it rolls. This metaphor emphasizes how dishonesty can escalate if not confronted early, leading to more complications and consequences as the falsehood is perpetuated.
In practice
During a discussion on ethics, one might use this quote to highlight the dangers of dishonesty.
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.
I want, of course, peace, grace, and beauty. How do you do that? You work for it.
Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play.
Jealousy is the tribute mediocrity pays to genius.
The Lord will always prepare a way for you to escape from the trials you will be given if you understand two things. One is that you need to be on the Lord's errand. The second thing you need to understand is that the escape will almost never be out of the trial; it will usually be through it.
When you run after your thoughts, you are like a dog chasing a stick: every time a stick is thrown, you run after it. Instead, be like a lion who, rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower. One only throws a stick at a lion once.
Outer achievements should be expressions of inner abundance, not compensation for inner poverty.
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