In the Worldwide Bible Class we’ve been studying the life of Jacob with Martin Luther’s Genesis Lectures. A few months back it occurred to me, “This is really a study on prayer.” As Luther considers the life of Jacob and all his struggles, he sees an example of faith fighting despair, and holding on to the promises of God.
Here are some excerpts from the Genesis commentary (volumes 5 and 6 of Luther’s Works, Genesis 26-37) selected under the theme “Genesis: A Handbook of Prayer.”
Prayer Is Between Affliction and Deliverance
Hence in order that you may overcome those difficulties and annoyances, whether in marriage or in the government, take care first of all that you have meditated well on the Word of God, in which the government is richly established, as we see in Rom. 12:8 and 13:1–4. Likewise in marriage, whether one is a manservant or a maidservant, whether a teacher or a pupil, they are sure of their station and the will of God. Just take hold of the Word, and bring forth fruits worthy of the Word, and you will see that affliction and trials follow at once. But prayer follows these. Deliverance follows prayer. The sacrifice of praise follows deliverance. Thus at the same time you will be able to bear your cross and to offer a sacrifice of praise, which the monks neither want nor are able to do. They are interested only in peace, the belly, and pleasure.
This is how Moses describes the life of this saintly father in accordance with this one chief point, namely, that he spent his life in many tribulations. (LW 5:6)
Prayer Follows the Word
But here there is an outstanding example of faith that struggles and cries out to God; for where the Word is, there prayer follows. (LW 5:14)
The Great Power of Faith and Prayer
I know that I have often done many things foolishly and very rashly, so much so that I thought: “Why has God called me to preach when I do not have as much knowledge, discretion, and judgment as the importance of the office demands?” Although I performed everything with a pious and sincere heart, with pious devotion and zeal, yet a great deal of nonsense and many failures arose, with the result that heaven and the whole world seemed about to go to ruin. Then I was compelled to fall on my knees and to ask for help and counsel from God, who is powerful and turns a denouement in a tragedy into a catastrophe in a comedy while we are sleeping. Thus He creates Eve while Adam is sleeping. He takes a rib from him while he is sleeping, closes the place with flesh, and builds the rib which he took from Adam23 into flesh. Here someone may say that God had silken fingers, because He performs such a great work so nimbly and so easily.
In the same manner He also governs His saints. Even if they have erred seriously in their thinking and have been guilty of great folly and rashness, from which countless evils can arise, yet He brings about a happy outcome, like the denouement in a comedy.
So great is the power of faith and prayer. Indeed, prayer is truly all-powerful. Therefore Isaac is deceived knowingly, purposely, and visibly, so to speak; for he says: “The voice is Jacob’s, the hands are Esau’s,” and yet allows himself to be deceived, just as we see in the books of the heathen that masters are deceived by slaves, as the well-known character in the comedy says: “If I were not a stone, I could have seen clearly.”24 God deals with His saints in such a way that they are not aware that anything foolish and rash has happened.
Accordingly, we should be careful to remember this example. It reminds us that the power of faith is so great that it makes those who have very keen sight or hearing blind and deaf, with the result that they are deceived even though they hear and see. And the question can be answered in this way, that although Rebecca acted rashly, yet on account of her outstanding faith she had divine providence as her guide, so that although father Isaac heard Jacob’s voice, he, filled as he was with confidence and unconcern, was deceived in spite of this. (LW 5:119-120)
Notes:
23 All the editions of the Lectures on Genesis read de muliere, “from the woman,” here; clearly “from the man” or “from Adam” is the sense of the passage.
24 Terence, Heautontimorumenos, V, 1, 43.
Prayer for Help in all Three Estates
Therefore one must take refuge in prayer, set forth the difficulty of the office to God, and say: “Our Father who art in heaven, etc., give me the wisdom that sits by Thy throne” (Wisd. of Sol. 9:4).
But above all a ruler in the church should pray in this manner: “Lord God, Thou hast appointed me in the church as bishop and pastor. Thou seest how unfit I am to attend to such a great and difficult office, and if it had not been for Thy help, I would long since have ruined everything. Therefore I call upon Thee. Of course, I want to put my mouth and heart to use. I shall teach the people, and I myself shall learn and shall meditate diligently on Thy Word. Use me as Thy instrument. Only do not forsake me; for if I am alone, I shall easily destroy everything.” The sects and the sectarians do the opposite, for they ascribe to themselves the wisdom and the ability to rule and to teach. Therefore they burst rashly into the church, do not pray, and do not believe that the administration either of the church or of the state is a gift of God; but they force themselves in as teachers and leaders. Therefore it eventually happens that they confuse and hinder what has been profitably built by others.
The same thing27 happens in the state to those who rely on their own counsels and wisdom when they assume an administrative office. Consequently, if you are in the government, beware of depending on your own wisdom; beware of yourself, and pray privately with folded hands: “Heavenly Father, be Thou with me; help, guide, and direct me.” Thus Moses turns back to God the entire matter of leading the people out and declines to do what God commanded unless God Himself is the leader and manager. He says (Ex. 33:15): “If Thy presence will not go with me, do not carry us up from here.” But when you have prayed in this manner, proceed with a stout and dauntless heart, and have no doubt about a happy and successful outcome. Thus I, too, often cast the keys at the feet of the Lord, as the German proverb puts it; that is, I turned back to Him the administrative office that had been committed to me. For this reason the matter had an outcome far different from what I had foreseen or thought. And if I had made some mistake, He Himself corrected it in accordance with His goodness and wisdom.
Moreover, in the management of the household father and mother are the instruments through which the house and household affairs are governed. But they themselves should also acknowledge that by their own power, diligence, or effort they can never bring up their children properly and successfully. Therefore they should cry out: “Lord God, heavenly Father, help us that our children may turn out well! Grant that the wife may live in chastity and honor, and that she may remain steadfast in the knowledge and fear of God!” (LW 5:123-124)
Notes:
27 The Weimar text has item, but we have followed the Erlangen text and read idem instead.
Retaining Hope and Prayer
Therefore in such tribulations the heart must be prepared to be patient, in order that we may take God’s judgment in good part; for nothing will harm us, who are repentant, do not participate in the sins of the ungodly, and pray earnestly. But woe to those who will have to drink the dregs! For such people become worse as a result of the punishment ordained for them and do not acknowledge the sin they have committed. They cry out and rage because of the misfortune. They are not sorry for their sin. If you cried out because of sins, God would hear you; but since you hide, excuse, and defend sin, “I will not hear your cry about the punishment,” says the Lord. This should be considered in regard to the reason for this very sad and sudden fall of Esau, in order that we may learn to understand and shun the reasons for punishments, and in order that in the common dangers we may retain hope and prayer, lest we be overcome by the misfortunes and desert to the godless. (LW 5:171)
Lord God, I am Thy Creature
In this manner we should learn to think and judge more properly about marriage than the flesh and the world are accustomed to do. And we should exhort the youth to suffer and bear with equanimity whatever evils occur. They should accustom themselves to prayer and say: “Lord God, I am Thy creature, created a man by Thee and ordained to this kind of life in which I am now constantly entangled in many evils and difficulties. But grant that I may truly acknowledge that I am Thy creature and that Thou art my Father and Creator. And grant that I may await help and protection from Thee.” (LW 5:192)
Two Priestly Offices: Teaching and Praying
A blessing is a far different matter from a wish. Yet a wish is added in this passage. “May God bless you, that is, make you fruitful, etc.,” says Isaac. Above, the blessing has been spoken; here the prayer is added. For it has often been stated that ever since the beginning of the world there are and always have been two priestly offices. The one is teaching, which takes place in the sermon or in absolution, in which I hand over the grace of God confirmed by the blood of Christ. The other is praying for oneself and others, which usually takes place after the sermon. For a prayer should follow every sermon. A good Our Father should follow a good sermon.9 For one should pray for the increase of faith, in order that we may grow in the blessing, lest the devil take it from us. Therefore both should be done: teaching and praying. For these are the two priestly offices: to hear God speaking and to speak with God, who hears us, to descend and to ascend. Through the blessing, through preaching, and through the administration of the sacraments God descends and speaks with me. There I hear. On the other hand, I ascend and speak into the ears of God, who hears my prayer. (LW 5:196-197)
Notes:
9 See Luther’s Works, 53, pp. 78–80.
The Preacher must Ascend through Prayer
It is true that a preacher must first ascend through prayer in order to receive the Word and doctrine from God. He should also study, learn, read, and meditate. Later he should descend and teach others. These are the twin duties of priests: to turn to God with prayer but to turn to the people with doctrine. (LW 5:217)
Prayer with all our strength
All these words and works are characteristic of very saintly matrons, namely, to pray, to weep, to give thanks; they are typical of honorable women, not of harlots and disreputable women. What more can we do before God that is greater than these two services—the services of prayer and thanksgiving? In the first place, one must hear the Word, which is given to us by God. Here we do nothing, but we only take hold of what has been offered. In the second place, one must pray and implore God’s help after the Word has been heard and taken hold of, and after getting this help one must give thanks and offer sacrifice. But we pray not only with the mouth or the voice but also with sobbing of the heart, with all our strength and members. This is prayer without ceasing (cf. Acts 5:12; 1 Thess. 5:17). (LW 5:356-357)
God strengthens our Pray through Suffering
But just as the prayer and the sobbing are ineffable, so the hearing and the joy are inestimable and ineffable, as Paul says (Eph. 3:20): “Now to Him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.” He does not give what His saints seek on the surface of their hearts and with that foam of words, but He is an almighty and exceedingly rich Bestower who gives in accordance with the depth of that sighing. Therefore He lets prayer be directed, grow, and be increased; and He does not hear immediately. For if He were to answer at the first outcry or petition, prayer would not increase but would become cold. Therefore He defers help. As a result, prayer grows from day to day and becomes more efficacious. The sobbing of the heart also becomes deeper and more ardent until it comes to the point of despair, as it were. Then prayer becomes most ardent and passionate, when it seems that now the sobbing is nearly at a standstill.
But if He heard immediately, prayer would not be so strong, so alive, and so ardent; but it would be only a superficial and pedagogical sobbing which is still learning to pray, to sob, and to desire, and is not yet a master of prayer. But when the point of despair has been reached and the afflicted heart thinks: “Alas, nothing will come of it; all is lost!” yet a spark and a dimly burning wick remain (cf. Is. 42:3), then be strong and hold out. For this is the struggle of the saints who think that the rope will now be torn yet who continue to sob. Then, therefore, prayer is perfect and strongest. (LW 5:359-360)
Ask, Seek, Knock
This is how we, too, should learn to ask and hope for help whenever there is misfortune and faith totters. For we have the promise of the Gospel; we have Baptism, absolution, etc., by which we have been instructed and strengthened. We have the command by which we are ordered to pray; we have the spirit of grace and of prayer. But as soon as we have begun to pray, our heart is troubled and complains that it is accomplishing nothing. Therefore one must learn that if you accomplish nothing by asking, you should add searching, that is, you should seek; if that, too, seems to be useless, and God conceals and hides Himself even more, add knocking, and do not cease until you storm the door by which He has been confined (cf. Matt. 7:7–8). For there is no doubt that our prayer is heard immediately after the first syllable has been uttered. Thus the angel says to Daniel: “At the beginning of your supplications a word went forth, and I have come to tell it to you” (9:23). But the fact that God does not immediately give what we pray for—this happens because He wants to be sought and to be taken by storm by insisting beyond measure, as the parable of the unrighteous judge teaches in Luke 18:2 ff. For then He comes and liberates the elect and gives more abundantly than we have prayed, sought, and knocked. But He defers in order that our praying may increase and that our sobbing may become stronger. This sobbing seems very feeble to us while we are sighing, but it is actually most ardent. Thus Paul calls it a shouting (cf. Gal. 4:6). For we not only recite words by forming a sound with the tongue and the lips or even let our prayers have a clear sound, but we simply shout out. There is no sound or voice of the mouth, but there is an outcry of the heart and ineffable sobbing; it is under the left breast, when the heart sobs and sighs as it almost fails for distress. Then indeed prayer is perfect and efficacious.
This should be frequently stated and repeated, lest we cast aside all hope and confidence with regard to our praying. Even though this praying is cold at the outset and does not immediately obtain help, yet we should know that help is postponed in order that prayer may become more perfect and stronger. For there is wonderful power and omnipotence in prayer. Thus when Rachel seemed to be altogether despised and scorned by God and nevertheless still remained a dimly burning wick (cf. Is. 42:3), it was impossible for God not to be awakened when called upon, sought, and stormed. But in the same manner He also helps all who call upon Him, and He helps so richly and liberally that they are compelled to acknowledge that they never hoped for any such thing. Thus Monica could say: “I did not ask for this, and I never had the courage to hope that my son would ever become such a great doctor of the church.” Therefore we should never lose heart; but we should persist in praying, wishing, and seeking until hope and the awaited liberation appear. (LW 5:360-362)
The Spirit teach us to Sigh in Prayer
The second is that [Jacob] turns to prayer, and thereby he also takes precautions not to tempt God. For here his faith, although weak, shines forth, though almost overwhelmed by troubles and terrors inasmuch as he is afraid that he will be slaughtered with his whole company and flocks. This is the right action, especially necessary in tribulation. He does not presume that something miraculous and beyond his strength must be done with his sword, and he does not tempt God by despairing and casting off all suggestions of reason, but he begins to rouse himself to invocation. Nevertheless, he still has a struggle.
We have often said that when faith is weakest, it is strongest. So wonderful are the works of God. Isaiah says (60:22): “The least one shall become a clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation.” Paul says likewise in 2 Cor. 12:9–10: “I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses … for when I am weak, then I am strong.” Jacob here is very weak in his terrors and troubles, amazed, and dejected above measure. Yet his faith was never stronger, because faith which struggles against unbelief draws, as it were, the last and deepest sighs.
But this sighing no one understands, neither Jacob nor anyone else. It is the ineffable groaning of which Rom. 8:26 says: “The Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.” It is not the voice of triumph, but in reality it is a groaning by which the afflicted heart only sighs and seems to draw breath with difficulty. Isaiah calls it a smoking flax and a reed which is not whole but crushed and shattered (Is. 42:3). But although there is nothing weaker and more feeble than this groaning (for it is, as it were, the last breath), it is nevertheless ineffable. (LW 6:107)
Jacob’s Excellent Prayer
It is, moreover, an outstanding example of an excellent prayer which has all the conditions that are required for a good prayer. O that one could do it! In the New Testament the doctrine and promises concerning prayer are set forth in great abundance, but who can carry it out? No, not even Jacob could! But he is so disturbed that he first arranges everything before he comes to prayer, although this should have come first (Ps. 51:1) “Have mercy on me, O God, etc.” But the flesh, taking us captive to the law of sin, brings it about that we turn the order around. It is therefore a fault that he turns to prayer more slowly than he should have, but it is the weakness of the flesh that first carried him away to the suggestions of reason.
In this manner he began his prayer: “O God of my father Abraham, etc.” In Hebrew it is “Gods.” It is a glowing prayer, in keeping with that spark of struggling faith; it is the cry of Moses at the Red Sea. But first Jacob’s faith appropriates the God of Abraham and Isaac, and later he also calls Him his own Lord. Thus he reminds God of the promises made to Abraham and to Isaac but especially to himself. These greatly increase and kindle his prayer and arouse and warn his struggling faith and smoking flax. “You said it to Abraham. You spoke to Abraham and to Isaac and to me; You will not lie,” he means to say. And yet he still struggles. It is, assuredly, a wonderful thing to have such great strength and such strong pillars of consolations and promises on which to lean and still to be alarmed.
But he says: “You said to me, ‘Return to your country.’ You led me into this tribulation, temptation, and dangerous life.” It is truly a great consolation when anyone can say: “Lord God, it is not by my rashness that I became involved in this calamity nor by the advice of any wise or foolish man. But You spoke; You ordered it. Therefore I did the right thing in leaving Laban, and now Your matter is at stake; Your promise and truth are in difficulty; Your faithfulness must be rescued, not mine.”
This is that humblest faith and that sighing concerning which mention has been made. This moves heaven and earth and is the most pleasing prayer: “You are the One who said it. I am under Your obedience; I must return to my fatherland on Your authority and orders, O Lord. But see what hindrances are placed in my way. I have been driven into these troubles and difficulties, from which I cannot struggle clear by my own strength and devices. Therefore, I have need of Your help.” The others perhaps did not pray but offered the objection: “If we had remained with Laban, we could have been safe.” But Jacob does not trouble himself with those thoughts. This is a very strong prayer. But why does he say further: “AND I WILL DO YOU GOOD”? Jacob meant to say: “This is, after all, Your word; it is Your word that You do not want to destroy and harm me but to do me good in my fatherland, to which You have ordered me to return.” From this it is clear that he was tempted and troubled not only by the devil because of the message of the coming of his brother but also by his wives, sons, and the whole household with its cry: “Ah, dear father, where are we to turn now? My father, my husband, my master,” they cried, “what have you done; why have you brought us into this critical situation?” These complaints forced from him the strong words: “Lord God, hear, I beg you, how these people are alarmed and are also tormenting my heart, although I know that You have promised me help and salvation.” Thus faith shines forth and makes itself heard, even though it is weak. (LW 6:108-111)
On True Prayer
So far, then, the promises which are required for prayer as it is taught in the New Testament, and also the command. For prayer should not be made in the manner in which the monks sound forth their empty mumbling and βαττολογία (“idle talk,” Matt. 6:7) of their prayers, paying no attention to the promises or the command and not thinking of urgent necessity. That is not praying. In former times, when I was a monk, I also used to pray in this way. To be sure, I used to pray in temptation, but the promises and the command I did not know. We were only mumbling words. But true prayer should proceed from a believing heart and one that sets before itself both the necessity and God’s command, by which the heart is fired up to present its petitions in faith. Here the individual words are pondered, not as the monks or nuns are accustomed to mumble their prayers absentmindedly and without understanding. Nor does true prayer worry about the number or multitude of words, but it multiplies and increases the sighs, to which no words answer except very feebly, as appears in this prayer. For Jacob prayed not only these words which Moses relates, but he sighed the whole night through and the whole day. It was a long prayer as far as groaning is concerned, although the words were very few. Then, too, gratitude and remembrance of past blessings are required for prayer. If these examples are assembled, they stimulate faith in a wonderful manner, and it is very pleasing to God. (LW 6:111-112)
The Three Virtues of Prayer
Furthermore, this gratitude includes the third virtue of prayer, which also belongs to mortification, namely, that it is heard without merits on its part. For one must not pray: “Have regard for me, O God, because I am a holy monk, I am a chaste virgin, I am an excellent bishop,” like the Pharisee in the Gospel with his: “I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get” (Luke 18:12). That monstrosity must be far removed and expurgated from prayer; otherwise prayer is corrupted, and both sacrifices, that of mortification and that of thanksgiving, are defiled by such dung.
Therefore, one should by no means speak in this manner, but we should follow the example of Jacob, who says: “I am not worthy of all Your mercies. I am not worthy, no, not even of one act of mercy or truth which You have ever shown me, are even now showing me, or will show me hereafter without any merit on my part. For it is impossible that I should merit anything. Therefore I do not rely on my worthiness but on Your promises and mercies.” This is a truthful heart and a true prayer, for this is really God’s judgment concerning us, to which Paul gave expression somewhere when he said (1 Cor. 4:7): “What have you that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast?” So you must pray in this way: “Lord God, what You have hitherto shown me is Your promise and mercy. There is no worthiness in me. Accordingly, as You have done hitherto and have given me all things even though I am unworthy, so also hear and help me hereafter in my unworthiness.” Otherwise God will reprove you, saying: “Why are you proud, you who are dust and ashes? You are earth, and to earth you will return. Did I not create you from dung? Who has preserved your life? All that you have is Mine pure and simple.”
Therefore, there are those three conditions of a good prayer, which make it very pleasing and a sweet-smelling odor before God which cannot fail to be heard. The first is that you should take hold of the promise. The second is that you should be mortified in your distress. The third is that you should give thanks and acknowledge that you are not worthy of one act of mercy but are seeking and hoping for help through mercy alone.
Prayer “Conquers” God
This is a useful and good allegory, instructing and confirming consciences, which should always be put to use and kept before one’s eyes so that we may conclude that the believer conquers God by his faith and prayer because God has promised that He will be his Defender and Savior and the Giver of all blessings. Therefore He is not willing to deny Himself and cannot do so (cf. 2 Tim. 2:13). But if He appears in another form or in another capacity and seems to be adverse to you, you should not be disturbed in heart, nor should you yield, but in faith you should offer resistance so that you may conquer and become Israel. How? Not with the strength or weapons of your flesh and nature but with confidence in the cause that intervenes between you and God, namely, that He has promised and sworn that He will be your God. With this confidence you will conquer, inasmuch as it arises not from nature but from the promise. If, therefore, He meets you as a wrestler and wants to destroy you or to hide His name and promise, be strong and hold firmly to the Word, even though you feel great infirmity, and you will conquer. Then in that fight you will also feel that the sinew, or joint, of the thigh is moved from its place and is becoming weak. (LW 6:154)
So Great the Might of Prayer
So great is the might of prayer. It conquers both God and brother Esau: it has overcome both heaven and earth. (LW 6:158)
One Must Keep Knocking
One must believe and hope and persevere in prayer, and one must knock. He will certainly come and will not tarry! (Cf. Heb. 10:37) For it is impossible for urgent, instant, and persevering prayer not to be heard. But because we do not believe, we do not experience this perseverance, nor do we feel the magnitude of God’s goodness and salvation. Let us therefore stir up our hearts to faith and prayer and know that God is delighted with that perseverance and has enjoined it when He says (Matt. 7:7): “Seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Nor is prayer ever heard more abundantly than in such agony and groanings of a struggling faith.
Thus far the church has obtained the mitigation of many of the worst evils that impended from the Turks and other adversaries. Altogether differently, therefore, and much more richly were our prayers heard than we either prayed or understood. Paul says in Rom. 8:26–27 and Eph. 3:20: “We do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And He who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit.” For we always seek less than we should, nor do we hope for those things which God bestows in all readiness. We do not seek as is necessary, nor do we understand these things, for they are too great for us to be able to comprehend them with our heart, inasmuch as we think only small and tiny thoughts. The Lord is great and high, and therefore He wants great things to be sought from Him and is willing to bestow them so that His almighty power might be shown forth. (LW 6:158-159)
God Certainly Hears Us
If we pray seriously and perseveringly, the only result can be that a friend is made out of an enemy. But let us only cry out and place our hope not on our worthiness but like a smoking flax (cf. Is. 42:3) on the goodness and mercy of God. Then God most certainly hears us. (LW 6:166)
Jacob’s Life was a Schoolhouse of Prayer
He acknowledges that God heard him. Accordingly, he was constant in prayer, seeking, knocking, and making invocation. Esau and Satan were his taskmasters, who urged and compelled him to cry to God and implore His assistance. For God wants us to call upon Him, and He wants to hear us and be our God. Above we have often heard that Jacob was involved in very great difficulties and that in his state of alarm he had lost God in some measure. In his flight to Mesopotamia, for example, he was as wretched as he could be, and later, in Laban’s house, he was afflicted by infinite ills of which he was unworthy. At length, on his return from Mesopotamia, he had to struggle with the Son of God.
His whole life, accordingly, has been beset by disasters, and this is what he means when he says: “the days of my distress.” For a period of almost 30 years it was necessary to endure one evil after the other. Surely God does not seem to be merciful and kind here, does He? He certainly is, for it is added that He hears prayer. Psalm 66:16–20 proclaims the same fact concerning Him: “Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what He has done for me. I cried aloud to Him, and He was extolled with my tongue, etc.… Truly God has listened; He has given heed to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, because He has not rejected my prayer or removed His steadfast love from me!” He Himself is very ready to hear; let us only be ready to cry out to Him.
That He hears is a matter of certainty, for He Himself has spoken, and He Himself has given the instruction (John 16:24, 23): “Ask, and you will receive.” “Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, He will give it to you in My name.” Likewise He says (John 15:7): “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.” Therefore, we should be censured for not asking, not crying out, and not pressing on. Jacob’s example, however, should be an invitation to us, for he praises God not in regard to his own works or sacrifices, which were also performed to declare his gratitude for God’s deliverance. But he does so because he has a God who makes promises, hears him, defends him, and rescues him from all evils which at times seemed quite irremediable. (LW 6:234-235)
Worship is Teaching and Prayer
Afterwards invocation is added and the prayer of the church, by which we seek to be confirmed and preserved in this doctrine and faith and to be defended by God in every tribulation. These are the two true and highest acts of worship—teaching and praying, and mortification of the flesh and the purging out of the old leaven in our flesh will follow them. (LW 2:248)
God Conquered through Prayer with the Promise
After having given us the promise He pretends that He is quite alienated from us; He allows us to be tempted and simply hides His face as though He had forgotten all promises. Then it is necessary to beg, ask, knock. And when it seems to us that we are still being neglected and are succumbing, it is necessary to persevere and to press on in faith, prayer, and patience. In this manner we overcome God, not abandoning the promise of God who promises. In this perseverance in prayer and faith God becomes a visible God from a hidden God, comforting us and doing what we wish, as it is written (Ps. 145:19): “He fulfills the desire of all who fear Him,” and likewise (John 15:7): “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.” These are true Israelitic words which conquer God and by which God is overcome. But what Christ adds is necessary: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you,” and likewise (John 14:23): “If a man loves Me, he will keep My Word, etc., and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” For God is conquered and makes and pronounces us Israelites when on account of faith in the promises He hears and preserves us. (LW 6:259-260)
