Luther refers to six things that makes a person a theologian, one of which is experience (p.17, Oswald Bayer, Martin Luther's Theology: A Contemporary Interpretation).
When Luther refers to "experience", he does not refer primarily to an actio but to a passio, not primarily to the experiences that I am in charge of, but in connection with that which I suffer. It is - to take it to the highest level - the experience that is mine in the agonizing struggle [Anfechtung] with the Word of God. This is the real point of Luther's famous statement: "sola experientia facit theologum" [only experience makes a theologian], which is admittedly most generally applied incorrectly, since it is not experience as such that makes one a theologian, but experience with the Holy Scripture.
(italics original, pp.21-22, ibid)
I read that yesterday and today we read Romans 15:4 in church:
whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Slightly different but connected. It reminds me of this John Newton hymn though.
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