Don't Bemoan Your Weak Faith

I'm using A Year with Jesus as part of my morning devotions. Today's reading, based on Isaiah 42:1-9, is from something written by Martin Luther (1483-1546). I read it without realizing that Luther was its author until I had finished. I should have known that they were his words: They crackle with freshness and life and accessibility. Here's the devotion in its entirety:

God Sustains the Weak Faith
A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not snuff out.
Isaiah 42:3

If there is one thing that can frighten a believer, it is thinking he is not praying properly or that he has too little faith. But even in this the anguished soul can take comfort.

It should serve as a comfort to such an anguished soul that any prayer spoken in Jesus' name, based upon His blood and merit, is a true prayer. There is nothing more proper than this. And a faith plagued by doubt is just as genuine and beatific as a strong faith. The true desire to come to God in prayer is a demonstration of true faith because such a longing is a work of the Holy Spirit.

Every weak faith can seize Jesus and His holy merits and wounds. Satan cannot extinguish the light of faith in the heart, since darkness indeed cannot extinguish the light. Reading the Bible, waiting upon the Lord...all these strengthen faith.

Faith is God's gift, and God will not require more of you than He has given you. Christ also died for the weak in faith. He prays for them, that their faith, although weak, may ever more strengthen and never cease.

Strengthen my faith when weak and break the work of the devil so I nevermore despair, instead that I may constantly carry Christ in my heart! Amen

[See here for a discussion of what it means to pray in Jesus' Name.]