“Dear God, if only we were as diligent to pray, at least with a longing in the heart, as you are in coaxing, bidding, commanding, assuring, and constraining us to pray. Unfortunately, we are too lazy and ungrateful! Forgive us, dear Lord, and strengthen our faith. Since I cannot pay the penalty, and my name has no prestige, let satisfaction be made in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.”
–Martin Luther, Luther’s Prayers, Ed. Herbert Brokering (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1994), no. 8, p. 13.
