“Dear Lord God, I cannot count the sins that I have done and still do. I have forgotten most of them and no longer feel my guilt. All that is in me and all power that is not grace is sin and is condemned. My works and my powers only make me despondent. I do not know what else to do but to hope and pray for Your mercy.
As grace and faith control me, I am devout through Christ. Where these fail me, I know and confess that nothing good is left in me. No matter how long I live, it will never be different. If I had the holiness of all monks, there would still be nothing good in what I think, speak, live, and do, if it did not have Your divine grace and power. All my sins are forgiven out of pure grace. This is the joy and comfort which You gladly grant to me, a poor sinner. Amen.”
–Martin Luther, Luther’s Prayers, Ed. Herbert Brokering (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1994), no. 94, p. 69.
