I have lifted the following post completely from this wonderful blog. Enjoy. I hope to find time to post some more in the future:
The afflicted person says: Faith is necessary to receive the blessings of the Word and the Sacraments. To receive any gift, there must be not only a giving hand but also a receiving hand. But my faith is very weak. My heart is tossed back and forth by various temptations. It is often shaken, and I am deprived of the firmness of confidence. The comforter says: Weak faith is still faith. Faith grasps Christ and in Christ the grace of God, the forgiveness of sins, and everlasting life, not because it is strong but because it is faith. A strong faith grasps Christ more firmly, but a weak faith still grasps Christ for salvation. Your Savior, Jesus Christ, will not break a bruised reed nor quench a smoking flax (Is. 42:3). He graciously accepts the one weak in faith (Rom. 14:3). . .God wants to comfort us as a mother comforts her child (Is. 66:13). But a mother deals much more tenderly with a little child that cannot speak, and takes greater care with him than with a grown child. God does not cast away the one who is weak in faith but takes great pains to heal and strengthen him, as we do for one who is physically weak. (Johann Gerhard, Manual of Comfort, 18:34)
From Gerhard—Theologian and Pastor
by Gaylin R. Schmeling
