Day by Day with Martin Luther

Read: Micah 5:1-7:20 Revelation 7:1-17 Proverbs 30:5-6

“Fix Your Eyes on Jesus”

“The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.”
[Matthew 11:5]

Do you not hear what Christ says? I give you My peace, God’s grace, and the forgiveness of sin. You must not look at yourself; you must fix your eyes on what I give you. As you know, you have My Baptism, Sacrament, and Gospel, which are grace and peace. Let those tremble before wrath and displeasure who live smugly and brazenly, are impenitent and wicked, and do not know Christ. For you are a person who desires God’s grace and the forgiveness of sins, who wants to be comforted by Him, who is frightened, and who is conscious of his misery. Therefore, those words are addressed to you … why then, are you so foolish as to refuse to accept and take to heart these beautiful and comforting words and tokens, in which He tells you and all fainthearted souls: “I do not want My Christians to be frightened…” Therefore, whenever you feel any sorrow or fear, you may rest assured that this certainly does not come from Christ. Nor must you give way to this; but you must take courage from these words, in which He exhorts you and bids you be unafraid.