A Simple Way to Pray

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. MATTHEW 6:9

In 1535 Luther’s barber, a master named Peter Beskendorf, asked him how to pray. It was a simple question from an ordinary man, and the busiest theologian in Europe answered it with a little book. A Simple Way to Pray, addressed to him as a good friend, is one of the most practical things Luther ever wrote, and one of the most revealing. It shows how the great Reformer actually prayed, day by day, when he was not preaching or fighting. It is also full of humour and humility. Luther confesses that he, too, has days when he is cold and unwilling to pray, and he tells Peter what he does about it.

Warming the heart

When he felt his heart growing cool and distracted, Luther said, he would take his little psalter, go to his room or, if it was a church day, to church among the people, and begin to say the Ten Commandments, the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer to himself, word by word, as he had done since childhood, and perhaps some words of Christ or Paul or the Psalms. He did not wait to feel like praying. He used the words he knew to warm his heart until it was ready. Prayer, for Luther, was not the fruit of a good mood; it was the remedy for a bad one.

He urged Peter to make prayer the first business of the morning and the last of the night, and to guard against the thought that he would pray in an hour when he had finished this or that. Such thoughts, he warned, lead away from prayer altogether, and the day is lost.

My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. PSALM 5:3

A garland of four strands

Luther’s method was to take a familiar text — a petition of the Lord’s Prayer, one of the commandments, an article of the Creed — and to make of it a garland of four strands. First, he asked what it teaches: what God is saying to me here. Second, he gave thanks for it. Third, he confessed the sin it shows me. Fourth, he prayed for help. So, taking the first commandment, he would learn that God wants to be his God and wants to be trusted above all things; he would thank God for being so ready to be his God; he would confess his idolatry and ingratitude; and he would ask for grace to trust God alone.

This simple pattern keeps prayer rooted in Scripture and saves it from both emptiness and wandering. It also means that the three texts every child learned in the catechism become an endless school of prayer. Luther did not think he had outgrown them. He said that he still sucked at the Lord’s Prayer like a child and was never full.

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. MATTHEW 6:7

Attention and freedom

Luther told his barber that a good barber must keep his mind on the razor and the beard, and not chatter and look about, or he will cut the customer’s nose or throat. So too, he said, prayer needs the whole heart. Yet he did not bind Peter to his words. If, while praying, the heart is kindled and good thoughts come, he said, let the rest go and listen, for then the Holy Spirit Himself is preaching, and one word of His is better than a thousand of our prayers.

That freedom rests on a deep confidence that God is present in prayer and eager to help. Luther’s Pentecost sermon speaks of the groanings of the believer that cannot be uttered, and says:

“But there is a precious listener, the Holy Spirit himself, who deeply feels our longing and also comforts our consciences.”

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. ROMANS 8:26

Holding God to His word

Luther’s prayer was bold. He believed that God had bound Himself by promises and that faith may lay hold of them. In his sermon on the appearing of the grace of God, he paraphrases the fiftieth Psalm, putting into God’s mouth an invitation that Luther clearly took to heart:

“Let me help thee in thy need. For everything, look to me. Let me alone direct thy life.”

And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. PSALM 50:15

The best-known example of this boldness came in 1540, when Philip Melanchthon lay desperately ill at Weimar. Luther came to him, prayed with great earnestness at the window, pleading God’s promises to hear prayer, and Melanchthon recovered. Luther spoke of it afterwards as a direct answer to prayer.

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. JAMES 5:16

Honest about prayer

Two cautions belong alongside this. First, the same Luther prayed with the same earnestness for his daughter Magdalena two years later, and she died. He grieved deeply, and he did not pretend to understand. Bold prayer is not a lever that forces God’s hand. It is a child’s confident asking, which leaves the answer with a Father who knows best. Any teaching that promises we will always receive what we ask, if only our faith is strong enough, is not Luther’s.

Second, the story of the little book has a sad sequel. In the same year it was written, Peter Beskendorf, in a drunken quarrel, killed his son-in-law. Luther interceded for him, and he was banished rather than executed. The man to whom one of the church’s best short books on prayer was written was a sinner like the rest of us, and he needed its counsel more than anyone knew. That is no reason to doubt the book. It is a reason to take its advice seriously, and to pray for ourselves and one another, since none of us knows the hour of our temptation.

And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint. LUKE 18:1

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Make prayer the first and last business of each day this week, before anything else crowds in.

2. Take one petition of the Lord’s Prayer each day and weave Luther’s garland: what it teaches, thanksgiving, confession, request.

3. When you feel cold towards prayer, do not wait to feel warmer. Say the Lord’s Prayer slowly aloud, and let the words warm you.

4. If a good thought or a Scripture comes to you while you pray, stop and listen. Let the Spirit preach.

5. Bring one hard request to God boldly this week, pleading His promises — and leave the answer with Him.

A PRAYER

Our Father in heaven, You have commanded me to pray and promised to hear, and still I am slow and cold.

Warm my heart with Your Word, and teach me to come to You first each morning and last each night.

Thank You for the Holy Spirit, the precious listener, who prays in me when I do not know how to pray.

Make me bold to lay hold of Your promises, and humble to leave every answer in Your hands, through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.