Many of you know I was recently ill with pneumonia for several weeks, unable to do much other than lay on my back. During this forced sabbatical from work and school, I spent some time rereading a pamphlet by Luther on prayer.

In “A Simple Way to Pray,” Luther shows us how to gain daily from rich blessings of the Church that have become so common and ordinary that they can be taken for granted, namely the Lord’s Prayer, Ten Commandments, and Apostles’ Creed. The idea is that these can be prayed daily with gain:

I divide each commandment into four parts, thereby fashioning a garland of four strands. That is, I think of each commandment as, first, instruction, which is really what it is intended to be, and consider what the Lord God demands of me so earnestly. Second, I turn it into a thanksgiving; third, a confession; and fourth, a prayer.

In this way, not only are these three passages changed from the short forms we have memorized from early childhood and hastily recited countless times, but prayer is changed properly from a one way request to a two way conversation: we speak to God in prayer and allow Him to speak to us by studying His Word while doing so. This is all accomplished in Luther’s method, which can be rephrased as a series of four questions:

1. What does this teach? What is commanded?
2. How does this passage or this command prompt thanksgiving. How is it a blessing?
3. How have I fallen short of what God expects of me here? What confessions do I have regarding this command?
4. What can I ask of God in light of this passage?

I was happy to have the opportunity to review this little pamphlet prepared by Luther a few centuries ago and wanted to share it. If you are interested, you can order a copy from Northwestern Publishing House for less than $2. You can also preview the text as it appears in larger works at Google Books. The NPH edition is a later revision of the text that includes a section written later on praying the Creed. It also has an introduction explaining the bizarre circumstances that led Luther to write the pamphlet.

Tags: faith,Luther
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