Introduction to the Lord's Prayer

We have heard what we are to do and believe; wherein the best and most blessed life consists. Now follows the third part—how we are to pray. Since no human being can keep the Ten Commandments perfectly, though he have made a beginning in believing, and since we must fight against the devil and all his powers, the world and our own flesh, nothing is so necessary as that we should constantly seek the ear of God, invoking him and praying him to give us faith and obedience to the Ten Commandments, to sustain and increase our faith and remove all that opposes and hinders us in this way. That we may know what and how to pray, our Lord Christ himself has taught us, giving us the very form and words, as we shall see.

But before we explain the Lord's Prayer, one petition after another, it is well and necessary to exhort and induce people to pray, as Christ (Lk 18, 1; Mt 7, 7) and the apostles (1 Thes 5, 17; 1 Pet 4, 7; James 1, 5) did. First, we must know that it is our duty to pray because God has commanded it. For we have heard in the second commandment: "Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain." There we are required to praise that holy name and call upon it in time of need—or pray; for to call upon it is simply to pray. Therefore, we are as strictly and solemnly commanded to pray as we are to have no other God, to commit no murder and never to steal. Let no one think that it is all the same whether he prays or not, as do the uninstructed people in their delusion who say: Why should I pray? Who knows whether or not God will hear and regard my prayer? If I do not pray, another will. And thus they fall into the habit of never praying; and because we condemn false and hypocritical prayer, they excuse themselves by saying we teach that no one need or ought to pray.

It is true that what has heretofore been offered as prayer—wailing and chanting in the churches, etc.—was really not prayer. Such external, ceremonial things, when properly observed, serve as an exercise for young children, pupils and simple minds; while they may be called singing or reading exercises, they are not real prayer. To pray 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. We are under obligation to pray if we would be Christians, just as we are under obligation to be obedient to father and mother and to civil authorities. By invocation and prayer the name of God is honored and rightly used. This you must remember above all things, and thereby silence and repel such thoughts as would withhold or prevent you from praying. Just as it avails nothing for a son to say to his father: What is the use of being obedient? I will go and do as I please; it is all the same—when there stands the commandment, Thou shalt and must obey: so likewise it is not left to my own choice whether I pray or not; I am required and in duty bound to pray or incur God's wrath and displeasure. This we must observe and remember above all things, and thereby silence and repel the thoughts which would deter or withhold us from prayer by the plea that prayer is a matter of little consequence or confined as a duty to those who are holier and more pleasing to God than we. The human heart is by nature so perverse that it always flees from God, thinking that he is averse to our prayers because we are sinners and have merited only his wrath. In opposition to such thoughts, I say, we should give heed to this commandment, and turn to God in order to avoid aggravating his anger by such disobedience. By this commandment he makes plain that he will not thrust us aside nor cast us out because we are sinners, but that he would rather draw us to himself and induce us to humble ourselves before him, to confess our misery and need, and pray for mercy and help. We read in the Scriptures of his anger against those who, when punished for their sins, did not return to him and by prayer soften his anger and seek his mercy.

From the stress laid by God upon prayer in his commandment, we should conclude that for our life we should not despise prayer when the duty to prize it highly is so obvious. The command to pray is on the same level with the other commandments. A child should beware of disobedience to parents; it should always reflect: The work is one of obedience and what I do is done with the understanding that I move in the path of obedience and divine precept; on this I rest, of this I boast, therein I seek my pride, not because of my own worthiness, but because of the commandment. So, also, our prayer and that for which we pray we should consider as demanded by God and done in obedience to his command, and we should think: As a matter of my merit it is nothing, but it avails because God has commanded it. So whatever be his prayer, everyone should always come to God in obedience to this commandment.

We therefore entreat and urgently exhort everyone to earnestly heed these words and in no wise to despise prayer. Heretofore the teaching done in the devil's name was such that none regarded it; it was thought sufficient that the prayers were said, whether God heard them or not. That means to make light of prayer, and to mutter on the chance of being heard. Such a prayer is worthless. We allow ourselves to be led astray and deterred by thoughts like these: I am not holy enough, not worthy enough. If I were as godly and holy as St. Peter or St. Paul, I would pray. Away with such thoughts! The same commandment which bade St. Paul to pray applies to me; the second commandment is given just as much for my sake as for his. He can boast no better or holier commandment than I. You should say, then: The prayer I offer is as precious, as holy and pleasing to God, as that of St. Paul and the holiest of saints. I freely admit that such a one is holier because of his person, but not because of his command. God does not value prayer on account of the person, but on account of his Word and the obedience shown. Upon the same commandment on which all saints base their prayers, I base mine; and besides, I pray for the same thing and for the same reason as they pray or have prayed.

The first and most necessary point, therefore, is that all our prayers be based upon obedience to God, regardless of our persons, whether we be sinners or saints, worthy or unworthy. And we must know that God will not have this commandment treated as a jest, but will be angry and punish us if we do not pray, just as he punishes all other disobedience; and also that he will not permit our prayers to be in vain or lost. For if he did not mean to hear us, he would not bid us, with solemn commandment, to pray.

Again, we should be the more impelled to pray because God has promised that our prayer shall certainly be fulfilled; as he says in Psalms 50, 15: "Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee;" and as Christ says in Matthew 7, 7 and 8: "Ask and it shall be given you . . . for every one that asketh receiveth." Such promises should arouse and kindle our hearts with a desire and love to pray; he testifies by his Word that our prayers are heartily pleasing to him and shall surely be heard and granted, so that we may not despise prayer, nor beat the air, and pray in uncertainty. You can hold up the promises and say: I come to thee, dear Father, and pray; not of my own accord nor in my own worthiness, but because of thy command and promise, which cannot mislead nor deceive me. Let him know who disbelieves these promises, then, that he provokes God to anger by grossly dishonoring him and charging him with falsehood.

And we should be the more persuaded and induced to pray because, in addition to the command and promise, God comes to our aid and puts into our mouths the very words we are to use, that we may know how sincerely he is interested in our needs and may never doubt that such prayer is pleasing to him and shall surely be heard. So this prayer is superior to any that we may be disposed to frame for ourselves. For in them our consciences might ever be in doubt and say; I have prayed, but who knows if it pleases God, or if I have used the right form and measure? There is no more admirable prayer on earth, then, than the Lord's Prayer, because it bears the superior testimony that God loves to hear it. We should not surrender it for all the riches of the world.

And it is thus prescribed in a definite form in order that we may see and consider the need which should urge and impel us to pray without ceasing. For he that would pray must bring a petition, naming and asking for some special thing, otherwise it is no prayer. For this reason, we have justly condemned the prayers of monks and priests, who, with much effort, wail and mutter day and night; none think of asking for the least thing. If we were to assemble all the churches and priests, they would have to confess that they never prayed from their hearts for so much as a drop of wine. For of not one of them could it be said that his prayers ever were prompted by obedience to God, by faith in his promise, or a sense of need. They have only thought, at the best, of doing a good work, by which they mean to give God his due, unwilling to take anything from him, willing only to give.

But where there is true prayer there must be earnestness. We must feel our need — a distress which presses and compels us to cry out and entreat. Then prayer will come of itself, as it should come, and we shall not need to be taught how to prepare for it and how to create devotion. But the necessity which should impel us, both for ourselves and others, is sufficiently indicated in the Lord's Prayer. Therefore it should serve to remind us of our need and teach us to earnestly reflect upon that need, that we may not neglect to pray. We all have needs enough, but the great trouble is, we do not realize them. Hence God desires us to lament and plead our wants, not because he does not know them, but that our hearts may be kindled to ask for more, and to ask more fervently, that we may spread our mantles to receive plenty.

Therefore, we should, from our youth up, accustom ourselves to pray daily for all our wants, and to pray whenever we are aware of difficulties, and also to pray for those among whom we live—pastors, authorities, neighbors, servants; and, as I said, we must always hold up before God his command and promise, knowing he will not have them disregarded. This I say because I would gladly see it again instilled into the people that they learn to pray aright, and not act so rudely and coldly, making themselves daily more unfit to pray, which very thing the devil desires to accomplish and works for it with all his might; for he well knows how his cause suffers and is injured when the people are given to fervent prayer.

We should know that all our protection and defense consists solely in prayer. For we are far too weak to resist the devil and all his power and his adherents, who oppose themselves to us and could easily trample us under foot. We must, therefore, remember to employ those weapons with which Christians should arm themselves to withstand the devil. For what, think you, could have heretofore accomplished so much—resisting and defeating the counsels and purposes of our enemies, restraining their murderous and rebellious designs, by which the devil meant to overthrow us and the Gospel—were it not that the prayers of a few godly people stood, like an impenetrable wall, between us and our foes? Otherwise, we should have witnessed a far different tragedy: the devil would have destroyed all Germany in her own blood. But now, let them mock and ridicule in their confident triumph if they will, we shall, by our prayers alone, if we be diligent and persevere, be a sufficient match for our foes and the devil. For when a godly Christian prays: Dear Father, thy will be done— God answers from on high: Yes, dear child, so shall it be, in spite of the devil and of all the world.

Now these things are said by way of exhortation, that we may, above all things, learn to value prayer as a great and precious thing, and clearly distinguish between mere mumbling and prayer for something definite. In no wise do we denounce prayer, but we do denounce mere unprofitable howling and muttering, as Christ himself rejected and forbade long senseless repetitions, Mt 23, 14. Now we will discuss the Lord's Prayer in the briefest and clearest manner. Here, in seven articles or petitions, are comprehended in connected order all the needs that continually beset us, each of which is so pressing as to become a lifelong object of prayer.