Many biographies of Martin Luther contain the story of when he froze at the altar offering a prayer at his first mass. He later recounted,

With what tongue shall I address such majesty, seeing that all men ought to tremble in the presence of even an earthly prince? Who am I, that I should lift up mine eyes or raise my hands to the divine Majesty? The angels surround Him. At His nod the earth trembles. And shall I, a miserable little pygmy, say 'I want this, I ask for that'? For I am dust and ashes and full of sin and I am speaking to the living, eternal, and true God.

This recollection allows us to observe in the young Luther a limited grasp of the character of God and our relation to him. He certainly had a strong sense of God's majesty and approached him with a deep sense of reverence and fear. But it is clear that he did not yet understand the work of Christ, which enables believers to "draw near to God with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith" (Heb. 10:22). God is great to be feared, but he is also a loving Father who invites us to draw near to him.

Tracing the development of his thinking on prayer is quite interesting. Later in life, he would come to treasure prayer so much that he is reported to have spent three hours each day praying. One of his students, during the famous Table Talk sessions, recorded Luther saying,

O how great and upright and godly Christian’s prayer is! how powerful with God; that a poor human creature should speak with God’s high majesty in heaven, and not be affrighted, but, on the contrary, knoweth that God smileth upon him for Christ’s sake, his dearly beloved Son. The heart and conscience, in this act of praying, must not fly and recoil backwards by reason of our sins and unworthiness, and must not stand in doubt, nor be scared away.

Notice Luther's shift in perspective here. Where at first the majesty of God caused him to feel unworthy, now he marvels that we should not be scared away by this. He himself wrote,

We pray after all because we are unworthy to pray. The very fact that we are unworthy and that we dare to pray confidently, trusting only in the faithfulness of God, makes us worthy to pray and to have our prayer answered... Your worthiness does not help you; and your unworthiness does not hinder you. Mistrust condemns you; but confidence makes you worthy and upholds you.

Of course, there is much for us to learn from Luther's understanding of prayer. His transparency is good for us to see because many of us find our understanding of prayer developing on the same trajectory as Luther's. We might begin by trembling before our awesome God, but as we come to understand who he is and what Christ has done in reconciling us to him, we come to recognise the intimate relationship we can have with God. And in time we come to realise what a treasure it is to be able to come before a holy and righteous God with such confidence in his love for us, knowing that he hears and answers our prayers.