Your statutes are wonderful; therefore I obey them. (Psalm 119:129 NIV)

What I have told you, dear brothers and sisters, is but a poor word and weak presentation of a magnificent and rich epistle. To read God’s word is sweet and to grasp in faith is lovely. However to comment the divine trumpet melodies of God’s message in human frailty and poverty makes truly humble. Just take God’s divine witness in word and sacrament, take hold of it and hold on to it, confess, preach and teach that – let it work in you creatively – and if the world becomes a strange and foreign place to you, if conflict and suffering arise against you, then don’t be afraid. Move forward confidently, take your cross and burden willingly until Jesus Christ let’s you triumph victoriously in that final peace to which you have been called and which will last forever and no war or hardship will ever break.

Help o Lord and God, who lives and works amongst us through the witness of your dear son Jesus Christ. Your threefold voice enter our ears and hearts and your wonderful power strengthen, complete, uplift and empower us in the true and saving faith, which recreates us anew and triumphs over all tribulation and hardship in this world. Amen.  

Let no joy or pain draw me away from you o Lord. Grant faithfulness unto the grave. You alone hold me in your hands and whom you grant this, receives it by grace. Your grace, which saves from death is not for sale nor can it be inherited through works.

I am in conflict and opposition – o Lord Jesus Christ help me poor and weak. I cling to your grace alone. You can strengthen and keep me even in temptation that it doesn’t upset me. You will preserve me in all danger. I know you are faithful.  (Paul Speratus, 1484-1554)

This is a rather free translation of Wilhelm Löhe’s devotion for Friday after the first Sunday after Easter: Quasimodogeniti. It is found on Pg. 171 in Lob sei Dir ewig, o Jesu!   (Eternal Praise to you o Jesus!) edited by A. Schuster and published in the Freimund Verlag, Neuendettelsau 1949