(Genesis Commentary: AE 3, p.159 f.)
Therefore we think: “What shall we wretched people do, we who have been living in all the sins against the First and the Second Table? Shall we short-lived sinners ( Ps. 103:15 ) really approach the infinite and eternal God and ask Him to alleviate these evils?”
Such are truly the sentiments of all human beings. Yet we must learn that we should pray even in the most desperate evils and hope for the unexpected and the impossible. And it is for this reason that these examples of the holy patriarchs are set before us. They show that the patriarchs, too, were afflicted by sundry cares and trials and yet received more good than they either understood or had been bold enough to ask for.
For we have a God who is able to give more than we understand or ask for. Even though we do not know what we should ask for and how, nevertheless the Spirit of God, who dwells in the hearts of the godly, sighs and groans for us within us with inexpressible groanings and also procures inexpressible and incomprehensible things.
It is profitable to teach these things, because even though we begin to believe and to pray, our hearts are nevertheless deterred by the magnitude of the things for which we are asking and then also by the Person of the Listener. Therefore these accounts incite our hearts to open our mouths toward God and to pray with confidence, without being deterred by the fact that we who are nothing are approaching Him who is everything.
James and John prayed that one should sit at the left of Christ and the other at His right, but He told them ( Matt. 20:22 ): “You do not know what you are asking.” Yet He heard their ever so foolish request, but He did so in a manner that was far different from what they themselves had thought. For they are not at the left or at the right of some worldly king; they are princes and judges of the entire world on the Last Day.
Therefore if we want to describe our prayers, they are really nothing else than the stammering of children who ask for bread or a morsel before meals. For we do not know what we should ask for. The things we ask for are beyond our comprehension, and He who bestows them is greater; and the things are also too great for our narrow hearts to be able to understand.
Thus there is the very beautiful example of Monica, the mother of Augustine, who prayed for her son and asked for nothing else than that he be delivered from the foolish ideas of the Manichaeans and be baptized. Like an anxious mother, she also considered betrothing a girl to him if in this way he might be converted. But the more she prayed, the more unyielding and stubborn her son became. Apparently, her praying came to be a sin. But when the time had come for the anxious prayer to be heard (for God is wont to delay His help), Augustine is not only converted and baptized; he devotes himself completely to the study of theology and becomes a teacher who shines in the church up to this day and teaches and instructs it. 50
Monica had never asked for this. She would have been satisfied to have her son delivered from his error and become a Christian. But God wants to give greater things than we are able to ask for, provided that we do not tire of praying.
For praying is no small task, as those who have no experience think. Those who do have experience in spiritual matters have said that no task can be compared to the task of praying. For praying does not mean to recite a number of psalms or to bellow in the churches, as the monks are accustomed to do; it is a serious meditation, in which the heart makes a comparison between the person praying and the Person hearing, and reaches the firm conviction that even though we are wretched sinners, God will nevertheless be gracious, will alleviate our punishments, and will hear our prayers.
But even though our hearts, strengthened by the Spirit and the Word of God, believe this, it is nevertheless certainly true that no one has so bold a heart that he dares ask for what God has determined to give. Thus we are hampered on both sides; the grandeur of Him who bestows and the unworthiness of him who prays hamper our prayer, so that we actually do not understand what we are praying for.
The petition for daily bread is of little consequence among the rest of the petitions. Yet if we knew how great a petition this is, no one of us would dare open his mouth; but Christ understood this petition when He said ( Luke 12:32 ): “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom,” as though He meant to say: “Do not be afraid, and do not be concerned about the things of this life, as the heathen are. For it has pleased your Father to give you, not an earthly kingdom but one that is eternal. Think, therefore, of the heavenly kingdom and of the victory over death and sin; these are important and worthy to have you expect them from God, your Father.”
Here Christ also points out that no one realizes what he is asking for and that God will not give those small things which we seek from Him but is eager and willing to give greater and grander things. In this the Holy Spirit helps us as He groans for us with groanings which we are unable to understand, much less to utter.
Therefore we must not despair amid these ragings of Satan and of the world against which our churches pray. The churches themselves are satisfied with an insignificant and small gift. But I hope that when God hears our small and narrowly defined prayers, He will not only defend our doctrine but will also propagate it and, in addition, will bring about marvelous things through it, so that the papists, however boastful they may now be, will be brought to naught. Thus the prayers of the church will destroy the Turk, and we shall find out that God gives greater things than we were able to ask for, yes, even to understand.
I am making these statements in order that we may be aroused, lest we despair because of our own unworthiness, because of the majesty of God, whom we address when we pray, or because of the magnitude of the things for which we pray or, to express it more correctly, do not understand as we pray for them, just as Abraham, an example for us, surely received more than he asked for, so that we may not cease praying or conclude that praying is fruitless. For God sees the innermost thoughts of the heart and understands those unutterable sighings which are in us and which are nevertheless not understood by us, who are like infants stammering at table.
50 Cf. Augustine, Confessions , Book III, ch. 11.
[1]Luther, M. 1999, c1961. Vol. 3: Luther's works, vol. 3 : Lectures on Genesis: Chapters 15-20 (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works . Concordia Publishing House: Saint Louis
