Cling to the Word
My father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in.
PSALM 27:10
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Cling to the Word
Those who are afflicted feel and complain that they are perishing and dying. Nor can nature think anything else when it is being mortified. It can say nothing else than "I am lost." But oh, how happy and blessed the voice of Christians is if they can cling to the Word and say: "I have been baptized. I believe in God the Father. I believe in Jesus Christ"! Let only this remain firmly fixed in the heart. Then all will be well. To be sure, the flesh is distressed and tortured. It hurts. Reason despairs. The will murmurs. Finally all the senses are completely downcast. Thus David says of himself: "I had said in my alarm: 'I am driven far from Thy sight"' (Psalm 31:22). But these words and thoughts must be censured, and one must fight against a corrupt nature and reason which can feel and say nothing else. "What, then, shall I do," you will say, "when I have been placed at the very door of hell and in despair? Shall I say with the psalmist: 'I am lost, I am cast off, etc.?' " By no means! But you must determine as follows: "I have been baptized; I have been called through the Word; I believe in the Son of God, who suffered for me. 'Father and mother have forsaken me, but the Lord has taken me up— (Psalm 27:10).
From Lectures on Genesis (Luther's Works 8:8-9)
April 4
PSALM 27:10
+
Cling to the Word
Those who are afflicted feel and complain that they are perishing and dying. Nor can nature think anything else when it is being mortified. It can say nothing else than "I am lost." But oh, how happy and blessed the voice of Christians is if they can cling to the Word and say: "I have been baptized. I believe in God the Father. I believe in Jesus Christ"! Let only this remain firmly fixed in the heart. Then all will be well. To be sure, the flesh is distressed and tortured. It hurts. Reason despairs. The will murmurs. Finally all the senses are completely downcast. Thus David says of himself: "I had said in my alarm: 'I am driven far from Thy sight"' (Psalm 31:22). But these words and thoughts must be censured, and one must fight against a corrupt nature and reason which can feel and say nothing else. "What, then, shall I do," you will say, "when I have been placed at the very door of hell and in despair? Shall I say with the psalmist: 'I am lost, I am cast off, etc.?' " By no means! But you must determine as follows: "I have been baptized; I have been called through the Word; I believe in the Son of God, who suffered for me. 'Father and mother have forsaken me, but the Lord has taken me up— (Psalm 27:10).
From Lectures on Genesis (Luther's Works 8:8-9)
April 4
Posted in Daily Devotions
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