The Lord's Prayer.
We have now heard what we must do and believe,in which things the best and happiest life consists.Now follows the third part,how we ought to pray.For since we are so situated that no man can perfectly keep the Ten Commandments,even though he have begun to believe,and since the devil with all his power together with the world and our own flesh,resists our endeavors,nothing is so necessary as that we should continually resort to the ear of God,call upon Him,and pray to Him,that He would give,preserve,and increase in us faith and the fulfillment of the Ten Commandments,and that He would remove everything that is in our way and opposes us therein.But that we might know what and how to pray,our Lord Christ has Himself taught us both the mode and the words,as we shall see.
But before we explain the Lord's Prayer part by part,it is most necessary first to exhort and incite people to prayer,as Christ and the apostles also have done.And the first matter is to know that it is our duty to pray because of God's commandment.For thus we heard in the Second Commandment:Thou shalt not take the name of the lord,thy God,in vain,that we are there required to praise that holy name,and call upon it in every need,or to pray.For to call upon the name of God is nothing else than to pray.Prayer is therefore as strictly and earnestly commanded as all other commandments:to have no other God,not to kill,not to steal,etc.Let no one think that it is all the same whether he pray or not,as vulgar people do,who grope in such delusion and ask Why should I pray?Who knows whether God heeds or will hear my prayer?If I do not pray,some one else will.And thus they fall into the habit of never praying,and frame a pretext,as though we taught that there is no duty or need of prayer,because we reject false and hypocritical prayers.
But this is true indeed that such prayers as have been offered hitherto when men were babbling and bawling in the churches were no prayers.For such external matters,when they are properly observed,may be a good exercise for young children,scholars,and simple persons,and may be called singing or reading,but not really praying.
But praying,as the Second Commandment teaches,is to call upon God in every need.This He requires of us,and has not left it to our choice.
But it is our duty and obligation to pray if we would be Christians,as much as it is our duty and obligation to obey our parents and the government;for by calling upon it and praying the name of God is honored and profitably employed.This you must note above all things,that thereby you may silence and repel such thoughts as would keep and deter us from prayer.For just as it would be idle for a son to say to his father,"Of what advantage is my obedience?I will go and do what I can;it is all the same";but there stands the commandment,Thou shalt and must do it,so also here it is not left to my will to do it or leave it undone,but prayer shall and must be offered at the risk of God's wrath and displeasure.
This is therefore to be understood and noted before everything else,in order that thereby we may silence and repel the thoughts which would keep and deter us from praying,as though it were not of much consequence if we do not pray,or as though it were commanded those who are holier and in better favor with God than we;as,indeed,the human heart is by nature so despondent that it always flees from God and imagines that He does not wish or desire our prayer,because we are sinners and have merited nothing but wrath.Against such thoughts (Isay)we should regard this commandment and turn to God,that we may not by such disobedience excite His anger still more.For by this commandment He gives us plainly to understand that He will not cast us from Him nor chase us away,although we are sinners,but rather draw us to Himself,so that we might humble ourselves before Him,bewail this misery and plight of ours,and pray for grace and help.Therefore we read in the Scriptures that He is angry also with those who were smitten for their sin,because they did not return to Him and by their prayers assuage His wrath and seek His grace.
Now,from the fact that it is so solemnly commanded to pray,you are to conclude and think,that no one should by any means despise his prayer,but rather set great store by it,and always seek an illustration from the other commandments.A child should by no means despise his obedience to father and mother,but should always think:This work is a work of obedience,and what I do I do with no other intention than that I may walk in the obedience and commandment of God,on which I can settle and stand firm,and esteem it a great thing,not on account of my worthiness,but on account of the commandment.So here also,what and for what we pray we should regard as demanded by God and done in obedience to Him,and should reflect thus:On my account it would amount to nothing;but it shall avail,for the reason that God has commanded it.Therefore everybody,no matter what he has to say in prayer,should always come before God in obedience to this commandment.
We pray,therefore,and exhort every one most diligently to take this to heart and by no means to despise our prayer.For hitherto it has been taught thus in the devil's name that no one regarded these things,and men supposed it to be sufficient to have done the work,whether God would hear it or not.But that is staking prayer on a risk,and murmuring it at a venture,and therefore it is a lost prayer.For we allow such thoughts as these to lead us astray and deter us:I am not holy or worthy enough;if I were as godly and holy as St.Peter or St.
Paul,then I would pray.But put such thoughts far away,for just the same commandment which applied to St.Paul applies also to me;and the Second Commandment is given as much on my account as on his account,so that he can boast of no better or holier commandment.
