Listen here.
Welcome to Devotions for Worship where we meditate on the
appointed Scripture readings for the upcoming Sunday. Thank you for being with
me today.
I am Pastor Eric Tritten from Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in
Hudson, OH.
On Saturdays we explore some devotional thoughts, habits,
and practices, by looking at what others have written on devotion. We’ve kicked
off this series by looking at a great document written by Martin Luther called A Simple Way to Pray. I’m going to be
reading from the American Edition of Luther’s
Works, vol. 43. This version of A
Simple Way to Pray was translated by Carl Schindler, and the copyright
belongs to Fortress Press.
A Simple Way to Pray – paragraph 12 – I did not ask for
permission to print A Simple Way to Pray,
but there are many versions available on line. Here is a link to one of them. A Simple Way to Pray.
There are a couple things that we should notice here. First,
notice the sense of conflict. Luther recognized that the world we live in is
not neutral. There are enemies about and there is a rebellion against God’s
will that is at hand. This is Spiritual Warfare that Luther is talking about,
and sadly it is something that we in North America have largely lost any
concept of. For years and years we have been comfortable. We have not
experienced much of the devil’s raging and threatening. Instead, he has been
more subtle among us working through temptations of wealth, intellect, and
comfort. Nevertheless, the devil, the world, and our own sinful nature war
against God’s will being done in our lives. The question becomes, what do we do
about it?
Some feel that the answer is in self-discipline and good
habits – both of which are good things. But the enemies we face in Spiritual
Warfare are beyond our strength. Notice how Luther throws the whole situation
to God and asks him to solve the problem. Now, he might protect us through
self-discipline that is rooted in his Word or good habits that are motivated by
faith, but what is clear in Luther’s understanding of the situation is that God
is the one with the power to make sure that God’s will is done.
Second, did you notice that Luther is still talking about
converting and defending? He prays that God would convert those who resist his
will and defend us against those who would lead us away from God’s will. Luther
was not a particularly gentle person, and yet his heart and desire – because this
is God’s heart and desire – is not that God crush his enemies, but that he
would convert them.
Converting them means that we will have to deal with those
who set themselves against God’s will while God does his work in their lives.
So, indeed, Lord defend us! Yet this is what love for God and neighbor look
like. We wait for God to do his will in the lives of others, and trust that he
is indeed at work in our neighbor. And we are patient with our neighbor sharing
the hope we have in Christ with him or her and praying that God would change his
or her heart so that they too will love him and they would receive his
salvation through faith in Jesus.
I think this might be one of the most important things for
us to learn about prayer – and particularly about the Lord’s Prayer: part of
its purpose is to intercede for our neighbor’s spiritual wellbeing – conversion
and protection. Perhaps in the future as we pray for our loved ones blessings
we will pray for them to be blessed with strong faith along with the other good
blessings we hope for them. Or when we pray for a friend who is ill we’ll pray
that God protects them from despair and doubt along with healing. Or, again,
when we pray for a friend who is struggling with troubles, we might pray for
peace and hope as well as resolution.
Last time we talked about A Simple Way to Pray I talked about getting a copy of Luther’s
Small Catechism and his Large Catechism to help us think more deeply about what
we mean when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, even as we say that short phrase, “Thy
will be done.” As Luther draws from the Scriptures to expand upon the theme of
the prayer, we also have a very helpful tool in the catechisms to help us do
the same when we pray.
Concordia Publishing House has an on-line version of the
Small Catechism at http://catechism.cph.org/,
Purchase Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation – 2017 Edition
- https://www.cph.org/p-32272-luthers-small-catechism-with-explanation-2017-edition.aspx
and the Large Catechism is available as a PDF through the
Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod’s web site, https://www.lcms.org/Document.fdoc?src=lcm&id=950
.
Purchase Luther’s Large Catechism - https://www.cph.org/p-17539-luthers-large-catechism-with-study-questions.aspx
Prayers –
O God, we thank you for your Word and for the gift of
prayer. We pray that you would help us grow in our devotion to meditating on
your Word and responding to you in prayer, and we ask that our devotion would
be rooted in your love for us and our love for you. We put ourselves, our
friends, our loved ones, and our enemies into your hands. Let your will be done,
Lord. Convert the hearts of all who deny you and draw them to faith so that
they may have the salvation and forgiveness Jesus won for us. And defend your
people from every temptation, every attack, and every provocation of the devil,
the world, and even our own sinful nature that would lead us into sin and away
from Jesus. It is in his name that we pray. Amen.
Memory Verse: Isaiah 25:9 - It will be said on that day, "Behold,
this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the
LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his
salvation." (Isa. 25:9 ESV)
Thank you so much for using Devotions for Worship, I pray
that our time together has blessed you and given you something to meditate on –
some reminder of God’s grace to rattle around in your brain – for the rest of
the day.
Would you do me a favor? If you got something out of this
devotional time, would you like and/or share it on Facebook, Twitter, or
wherever you do social media? That would help me get the word out, and
hopefully help these devotions be a blessing to others.
God bless you!
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