Today is Reformation Sunday when we celebrate our reformed heritage
through the Protestant Reformation. I thought that it would only be fitting to
share with you something that Martin Luther wrote about prayer in 1535. He
wrote a small booklet called “A
Simple Way to Pray” for his barber and friend Peter Beskendorf. In his
opening to this booklet, Luther tells his friend, “I will tell you as best I
can what I do personally when I pray. May our dear Lord grant to you and to
everybody to do it better than I!”
Luther wrote Beskendorf that he used the Bible as his guide
to prayer and he often prayed the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the
Creed. He also recommended using the words of Christ or of Paul or the Psalms to pray.
What I like about Luther’s writing is his remarks about saying
Amen at the end of a prayer:
“Finally, mark this, that you must always speak the Amen
firmly. Never doubt that God in his mercy will surely hear you and say “yes” to
your prayers. Never think that you are kneeling or standing alone, rather think
that the whole of Christendom, all devout Christians are standing there beside
you and you are standing among them in a common, united petition which God
cannot disdain. Do not leave your prayer without having said or thought, “Very
well, God has heard my prayer, this I know as certainty and a truth.” That is
what Amen means.”
Amen!
Yours in Christ, Emma.
“To be a Christian without prayer is
no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” Martin Luther
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