I wrote a while ago that we have reintroduced the German Litany at Chapel. We prayed it again this morning. There is no doubt that is it the prayer for our day. Turn to Page 288 in LSB or 661 in TLH and make use of it!

At our winkel we are studying the Large Catechism and the chief part for this past Tuesday was the Lord’s Prayer. The conversation turned to the Christian’s need for repentance for the lack of keeping the Commandment to pray, and at the same time the Christian’s need to repent for lack of faith in believing God’s promise to hear us. In our Rite of Confession and Absolution one of the things confessed is “my worship and prayers have faltered”. That is true and so we should all confess.

Of course prayer is roundly mocked by the world along the lines of “your thoughts and prayers aren’t going to fix fill in the the issue of the day”. Christians don’t pray because we think our prayers will fix the problem, we pray because God has commanded us to do so and because He is gracious and will hear us. Read how Luther introduces the Lord’s Prayer in the Large Catechism,

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 fulfilment 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.

It is certainly worth your time to read the entirety of the Large Catechism on the Lord’s Prayer and be stirred up to pray that Our Father would increase our faith and that we may keep His commandments. We are the children of God, beloved of the Father. Our Father loves to hear us, and He does through the mediation of our Great High Priest Jesus Christ. The Son of God offered Himself as a fragrant offering to His Father, that by means of His Blood we have access to Our Father’s ears. The Father and the Son send forth the Holy Spirit, and what does the Holy Spirit do?

“The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” Romans 8:26-30

Believe that all things work together for good for those who are the called according to His purpose. Believe that God is conforming you to the image of His Son. Believe that you are called, justified and in Christ glorified. Believe that your prayers are heard. And then…

Let us pray.