Luther on Prayer

Genesis 32:9-11

And Jacob said, ‘O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, “Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good”, I am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan; and now I have become two companies. Deliver me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him; he may come and kill us all, the mothers with the children.

Martin Luther writes, "'When you pray you shouldn't ramble like heathens who think they'll be better if they just talk more.' {Matthew 6:7}

People who ramble when they pray aren't thinking about God's promises or commands or even the help they desperately need. This is not true prayer. I used to pray this way when I was a monk. I called out to God in times of need, but I didn't know anything about God's promises to hear me or his command to pray. I was just mumbling words. Real prayer on the other hand, comes from deep within. Like Jacob's prayer in this passage, real prayer comes from a heart full of faith that realizes both a need to pray and God's command to pray. Both of these truths should inspire us to pray and think carefully about the words we're using. Some people routinely mumble their prayers while their thoughts are far from them. They are not really praying, they don't even know what they're talking about. Real prayer doesn't require a lot of words. It involves long and deep sighs without words. Jacob's prayer probably wasn't limited to the words recorded by Moses - most likely, Jacob sighed all day and night; judging from this his prayer must have been very long and used few words.

So we also should use fewer words in prayer, and never neglect to be thankful for how God has blessed us in the past. Remembering past examples of God's love and faithfulness, rekindles faith in us and pleases God. Jacob showed his gratitude to God when he prayed, 'I'm not worthy of all the love and faithfulness you have shown me."