Prayer, in and by itself, makes no one holy. It is only the person who is already holy in Christ who truly prays. One\u27s whole conception of Christianity can be perverted if one begins to speak about prayer without first relating it to the Word of the Gospel. A word of warning from Luther is in place as we begin to consider the subject of this paper: But I would counsel you, if you wish to pray, fast, or establish some foundation in the Church, take heed not to do it in order to obtain some benefit, whether temporal or eternal. For you would do injury to your faith, which alone offers you all things. Your care should be that faith may increase, whether it be trained by works or by suffering
