Unshakable

Over five hundred years ago (April 18, 1521), a young monk stood before an august church council and was confronted with angry demands that he retracts what he had written about the church and salvation.

But Martin Luther would not retract. As he stood in a palace in the city of Worms, Germany, before one of the most imposing assemblies ever convened, he bravely declared, “Here I stand, I can do no other, God help me. Amen.”* If you visit the city of Worms today, you’ll find a magnificent monument dedicated to Martin Luther and other heroes of the Protestant Reformation, including Philip Melanchthon, John Wycliffe, and John Huss. A nearby church has Luther’s famous remarks inscribed on an exterior wall, and there is a humble marker set at the spot where Luther is said to have taken his bold stand for Jesus. Isaiah 50:7 refers primarily to Jesus and His strong commitment to yield His life to the will of God. Derided, persecuted, and pursued, Jesus manifested solid, unshakable faith in His Father, faith that made Him choose to yield His life for the benefit of a sinful world. Is great faith only an attribute of such people as Martin Luther and Jesus Christ? Every day, God gives each person the opportunity to demonstrate great faith: the mourner who chooses to trust in God in the midst of great sadness; the recipient of an unexpected, challenging diagnosis who holds fast to Jesus; the young man or woman who breaks off an engagement because of the sad discovery that their intended was not actually of God’s choosing and moves forward claiming God’s promises.

Every decision to trust in God, even in life’s more mundane moments, is a decision of great faith. Martin Luther had learned great faith in the smaller details of life, and he demonstrated that faith on momentous occasions. His experience of faith in God can be yours.