“When God sends us such great afflictions, we, too, must learn not to follow our own thoughts or the advice of such people who send us here and there and direct us to our own or to other people’s resources. Rather, we should remember that we must seek Christ in His Father’s house and about His Father’s business. We must simply cling solely to the Word of the Gospel, which shows us Christ correctly and teaches us how to know Him. Learn, then, from this and from any other spiritual affliction that whenever you wish to communicate genuine comfort to others or to yourself, you must say with Christ: Why are you running here and there, tormenting yourselves with anxious and sad thoughts, imagining that God will not keep you in His grace and that there is no longer any Christ for you? Why do you insist on finding Him within yourselves, insist on feeling holy and without sin? You will never succeed. All your effort will be worthless… Come to the place that is driven neither by your own nor by any human being’s business, but by God’s business and rule. So come to His Word. There you will find Him and hear and see that there is no wrath and disfavor against you in Him, as you fear in your despair. Christ has nothing but grace and warm love in store for you.”
Martin Luther - Sermon for the First Sunday after Epiphany on Luke 2:41-52 quoted from C.F.W. Walther, Law and Gospel, Nineteenth Evening Lecture
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