Quotes About Devotion

Preach [and live] as if Jesus was crucified yesterday, rose from the dead today, and is returning tomorrow.

If we do not love God and His Word what difference does it make if we love anything at all?

Whoever wants to be a Christian should tear the eyes out of his reason.

Grant that I may not pray alone with the mouth; help me that I may pray from the depths of my heart.

I felt that I had been born anew and that the gates of heaven had been opened. The whole of Scripture gained a new meaning. And from that point on the phrase, 'the justice of God' no longer filled me with hatred, but rather became unspeakable sweet by virtue of a great love.

For "to love" means to hate oneself and to condemn oneself, according to Christ's saying in John 12:25: "He that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

All teachers of Scripture conclude that the essence of prayer is simply the lifting up of the heart to God. But if this is so, it follows that everything else that doesn't lift up the heart to God is not prayer. Therefore, singing, talking, and whistling without this lifting up of your heart to God are as much like prayer as scarecrows in the garden are like people. The name and appearance might be there, but the essence is missing.

Do not let your thoughts take flight, flutter, and climb. Simply cleave and cling to Christ. It is imperative to remain solely with the Person of Christ. If you have that, you have all; but if you lose that, you have lost all.

You must pray diligently and strive to resist the desires of your sinful nature. Ask God to give you a Rebekah or Isaac instead of a Delilah or Samson—or someone even worse. Finding a devoted, loyal wife or husband isn't a matter of good luck. It's not the result of good judgment, as unbelievers think. Rather, a devout spouse is a gift from God.

Since God will have us leave father and mother for his sake, certainly he will have us leave lords (governors) for his sake.

We are so blind that we run to God with physical ailments and needs, but for illnesses of the soul we run away from God and are determined not to return until we are cured—as if there were two gods, one to help the body and one to aid the soul, or as if we ourselves could take care of spiritual needs, although they are greater than the physical. This is really a devilish bit of advice and counsel.

Injury is done to the Word of God when, in the same sermon, an equal or larger amount of time is devoted to indulgences than to the Word.

Oh, if a man were so to regard himself and his position, and attended to its duties alone, how rich in good works would he be in a short time, so quietly and secretly that no one would notice it except God alone!

Before you pray, check to see whether you believe or doubt that you will be heard. If you are doubting or uncertain, or if you are merely trying a prayer to see what happens, your prayer won't be worth anything.

Accordingly, let us, too, learn to put aside all questions and simply to go in the name of the Lord and do whatever God has commanded, whether it is foolish, offensive, or dangerous. If God's command is connected with it, even a work that is disgraceful and shameful in the sight of reason is most beautiful and holy; for there is no greater and better adornment than the Word of God.

We must pray and do our daily work, but everything we do must flow from faith.

You must die if you would live under this King. You must bear the cross and the hatred of the whole world. You must not flee from ignominy, poverty, hunger, and thirst, in other words, all the evil that floods the earth.

To be a Christian without praying is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.

Works, since they are irrational things, cannot glorify God, although they may be done to the glory of God, if faith be present.

Those who lapse from the Gospel to the Law are no better off than those who lapse from grace into idolatry.

Wer ein Christ sein will, der steche seiner Vernunft die Augen aus.

If I were emperor, king, or prince in a campaign against the Turk, I would exhort my bishops and priests to stay at home and mind the duties of their office, praying, fasting, saying mass, preaching, and caring for the poor, as not only Holy Scripture, but their own canon law teaches and requires.

You will thus wrong your faith, which alone bestows all things on you, and the increase of which, either by working or by suffering, is alone to be cared for.

As I have always both offered and desired peace so that I might devote myself to quieter and more useful studies, and have stormed with such great fury merely for the purpose of overwhelming my unequal opponents by the volume and violence of words no less than of intellect, I not only gladly ceased but also joyfully and thankfully considered this suggestion a very welcome kindness to me, provided our hope could be realized.