Larry Devich
Thursday, January 06, 2005
I have a devotional book on my PDA that I read from each day. It's called "By Faith Alone" and was written by Martin Luther, well at least the daily entries are quotes from Martin Luther. Here is the one from yesterday that I particularly liked.
Unworthy to Pray
But the tax collector was standing at a distance. He wouldn't even look up to heaven. Instead, he became very upset, and he said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”
Luke 18:13
Some say, “I would feel better about God hearing my prayer if I were more worthy and lived a better life.” I simply answer: If you don't want to pray before you feel that you are worthy or qualified, then you will never pray again. Prayer must not be based on or depend on your personal worthiness or the quality of the prayer itself but on the unchanging truth of God's promise. If the prayer is based on itself, or on anything else besides God's promise, then it's a false prayer that deceives you—even if your heart was breaking with intense devotion, and you were weeping drops of blood.
We pray because we are unworthy to pray. Our prayers are heard precisely because we believe that we are unworthy. We become worthy to pray when we risk everything on God's faithfulness alone.
So go ahead and feel unworthy. But know in your heart that it's a thousand times more important to honor God's truthfulness. Yes, everything depends on this alone. Don't turn his faithful promise into a lie by your doubts. For your worthiness doesn't help you and neither does your unworthiness hinder you. A lack of faith is what condemns you, but confidence in God is what makes you worthy.
(A bit later on in the day)
One of my New Years resolutions this year is to memorize a passage of scripture each week. Today I made my first attempt. I found it tough going at first but then I paused and prayed and asked God to bless the endeavor and enable me to absorb his word and make it a part of me. Suddenly the whole thing got easier! :-) Strange how that works. The method I'm using is to first read the passage several times out loud. Then I copy it carefully by hand onto a sheet of paper. Then I divide it into phrases that seem natural to me, and write them down several times, trying to get it without "peeking". Then I try saying the first phrase without looking, adding another phrase when I get it right. I also practice using a program on my PDA where I can write the fist letter of each word as I go along and the program fills in the whole word, this is good as a test to see if I'm getting it... Then after a while I speak the whole passage into a recorder and then play it back to make sure I've got it word for word. Today I memorized 1 Cor 10:13 (NIV) No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. And yes, I wrote that without peeking :-)
I debated with myself for a long time over which of the numerous translations of the bible I ought to use for my memorization work and finally settled on the New International Version (NIV). The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod has chosen the English Standard Version (ESV) as its "Official" version, and I have that on my PDA, but I don't have a paper copy of it, and I have used the NIV for a long time. The ESV is supposedly a more literal translation, and it resembles the King James Version and the Revised Standard Version more than the NIV does. On the other hand the NIV flows better and is still a good version from all I've ever heard. The final deciding factor was my purchase of the Concordia Study Bible which is a Lutheran version of the NIV study bible. So, since that is the bible I am using for most of my study and devotional reading it makes sense to memorize in that same version. That should help to eliminate confusion I should hope. ¶ 1/06/2005 08:12:00 AM 0 Comments
Unworthy to Pray
But the tax collector was standing at a distance. He wouldn't even look up to heaven. Instead, he became very upset, and he said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”
Luke 18:13
Some say, “I would feel better about God hearing my prayer if I were more worthy and lived a better life.” I simply answer: If you don't want to pray before you feel that you are worthy or qualified, then you will never pray again. Prayer must not be based on or depend on your personal worthiness or the quality of the prayer itself but on the unchanging truth of God's promise. If the prayer is based on itself, or on anything else besides God's promise, then it's a false prayer that deceives you—even if your heart was breaking with intense devotion, and you were weeping drops of blood.
We pray because we are unworthy to pray. Our prayers are heard precisely because we believe that we are unworthy. We become worthy to pray when we risk everything on God's faithfulness alone.
So go ahead and feel unworthy. But know in your heart that it's a thousand times more important to honor God's truthfulness. Yes, everything depends on this alone. Don't turn his faithful promise into a lie by your doubts. For your worthiness doesn't help you and neither does your unworthiness hinder you. A lack of faith is what condemns you, but confidence in God is what makes you worthy.
(A bit later on in the day)
One of my New Years resolutions this year is to memorize a passage of scripture each week. Today I made my first attempt. I found it tough going at first but then I paused and prayed and asked God to bless the endeavor and enable me to absorb his word and make it a part of me. Suddenly the whole thing got easier! :-) Strange how that works. The method I'm using is to first read the passage several times out loud. Then I copy it carefully by hand onto a sheet of paper. Then I divide it into phrases that seem natural to me, and write them down several times, trying to get it without "peeking". Then I try saying the first phrase without looking, adding another phrase when I get it right. I also practice using a program on my PDA where I can write the fist letter of each word as I go along and the program fills in the whole word, this is good as a test to see if I'm getting it... Then after a while I speak the whole passage into a recorder and then play it back to make sure I've got it word for word. Today I memorized 1 Cor 10:13 (NIV) No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. And yes, I wrote that without peeking :-)
I debated with myself for a long time over which of the numerous translations of the bible I ought to use for my memorization work and finally settled on the New International Version (NIV). The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod has chosen the English Standard Version (ESV) as its "Official" version, and I have that on my PDA, but I don't have a paper copy of it, and I have used the NIV for a long time. The ESV is supposedly a more literal translation, and it resembles the King James Version and the Revised Standard Version more than the NIV does. On the other hand the NIV flows better and is still a good version from all I've ever heard. The final deciding factor was my purchase of the Concordia Study Bible which is a Lutheran version of the NIV study bible. So, since that is the bible I am using for most of my study and devotional reading it makes sense to memorize in that same version. That should help to eliminate confusion I should hope. ¶ 1/06/2005 08:12:00 AM 0 Comments
