Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It is laying hold of His willingness.
Martin LutherRead
The only saving faith is that which casts itself on God for life or death.
Interpretation
True faith is the complete trust in God, regardless of the circumstances of life or death.
Martin Luther emphasizes that genuine faith is not merely belief but an absolute reliance on God through all aspects of life, including the most challenging times. This type of faith serves as a source of strength, guiding individuals to find comfort and assurance in the divine presence amidst both the joys and adversities of life.
In practice
During a sermon about faith, this quote can inspire the congregation to trust in God through life's challenges.
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 trust Jesus with all my tomorrows, knowing that He will solve the mystery of life beyond the grave.
Let all your thoughts be with the Most High, and direct your humble prayers unceasingly to Christ. If you cannot contemplate high and heavenly things, take refuge in the Passion of Christ, and love to dwell within His Sacred Wounds. For if you devoutly seek the Wounds of Jesus and the precious marks of His Passion, you will find great strength in all troubles.
I never realized what a great privilege it is to be able to use the voice for Christ until I was deprived of it.
Readiness for God means that we are ready to do the tiniest little thing or the great big thing, it makes no difference
When our whole life is one faith, hope, love, prayer and silence, a consecrated life always bound up in the Eucharist, then the 'urge' towards God springs.
Trusting God's grace means trusting God's love for us rather than our love for God. [...] Therefore our prayers should consist mainly of rousing our awareness of God's love for us rather than trying to rouse God's awareness of our love for him, like the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:26-29).
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