Read the Large Catechism with me.
Ten-minute studies on short readings from the Large Catechism.
Let's do this.
Click on the link below and read the short assigned reading. Then, if you have time, check out what I have to say about it. If not, no problem. Just soak up the goodness of the LC.
The Lord's Prayer Introduction, Part 1: Click here and read 1-11.
The basics:
- We have learned what me must do and believe in the previous sections, now we learn how we ought to pray.
- We are unable to follow the Ten Commandments even though we have begun to believe the Apostles' Creed. Therefore, we must 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 of doing so.
- It is our duty to pray because of God's commandment. In the Second Commandment, we are commanded to call upon the name of our Lord in every need.
- Some fall into a pattern of not praying, because they think someone else will pray.
- "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."
- The heart is by nature so depressed that it always flees from God and believes He does not wish or desire our prayer because we are sinners and have merited nothing but wrath.
- By the Second Commandment, He shows us that He wishes to draw us to Himself, that we are humbled and share our misery and plight with Him, and pray for grace and help.
My thoughts today:
Throughout my life, I have gone through various stages of praying. I distinctly remember in college that I kept a sheet of paper taped by my bed. It was a list of all the things I should have been praying for. Each night I would say, "Dear Lord, You know the list. Amen."
OK, maybe a few other words were in there, but that was pretty much the extent of it. And while He did, in fact, know the list, I am pretty sure that isn't exactly what He commands in calling upon His name in every need.
The truth is it is just so hard sometimes. Life takes over - in whatever stage or season of life we are in. Papers must be written. Chores must be done. Dinner must be cooked. Diapers have to be changed. Lessons have to be taught. Blog posts must be written...Oh, maybe not that one. But you get my point. There is so much to pray for that our brains can literally start believing there isn't really anything to pray for because there is simply too much stuff and not enough time. Our hearts are so depressed that they flee from God, in the words of Luther. We are sinners, and because of that, we are sinners in our prayer life, as well. But, oh gracious Lord of ours, He does not hold this against us.
"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." Paragraph 11.
