“For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). I know a lady here in Germany who, in the past several years, has rejected her faith in Jesus Christ no less than ten times. Not surprisingly, what seems to trigger her repeated falling away is when she stops taking the Lord’s Supper and quits reading her Bible. In his explanation of the 3rd Petition of the Lord’s Prayer (“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”), Martin Luther explains that there are unseen forces actively seeking to destroy our faith in Jesus Christ: “God’s will is done when He breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, which do not want us to hallow God’s name or let His kingdom come; and when He strengthens and keeps us firm in His Word and faith until we die. This is His good and gracious will.” Every time this lady repents and returns to her faith in Jesus Christ, I invite her back to the Divine Service to once again receive the Lord’s gifts of forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation in the Lord’s Supper. She often replies that she is ashamed to darken the door of the sanctuary because of her constant failings. The world would have us believe that we can overcome all difficulties in life—even in spiritual matters—through our own strength. Yet it is precisely in our times of frailty that we need Jesus even more. Lord have mercy on those who fall, but we give thanks for the strength of Christ who carries us precisely when we are weak.
The Tiews in Germany 