Thursday, October 27, 2011

Not My Will, but Yours Be Done

Another Lutheran prayer, this time for God's will to guide and govern ours:
Give us grace to willingly acknowledge and bear all sickness, poverty, shame, suffering, and misfortune as coming from your divine will to crucify ours. Grant that we may gladly suffer injury, and guard us against seeking revenge. Let us not repay evil for evil, nor oppose force with force. But let us have pleasure in your will which permits these to come upon us, and let us give praise and thanks to you. 
When something opposes our will, let us not attribute it to the devil or wicked people, but to your will that regulates all things that they might hinder our will and that your kingdom may be blessed. According to your will, help us not to be disobedient through impatience and despair but to leave this life cheerfully and obediently. 
Help that our eyes, tongue, heart, hands, feet, and bodily organs may not be left to their own inclinations but be held, bound, and controlled by your will. Guard us against our own stubborn, cruel, obstinate, selfish will. Amen. 
 —Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 31.

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