Whoever you are reading this, in Christ God has given you every spiritual gift there is (Ephesians 1:3).
This gift really is yours in Christ, and it is truly given to you in Christ:
whether you believe it or not;
whether you feel it or not;
or whether you act like it or not.
God’s gifts to you in Christ are genuine, true and objective.
But we only benefit from these gifts as we receive them through faith, which means trusting the God who gives them to us.
From that trust, we can make use of these wonderful gifts in various ways. One of those ways is prayer.
One of God’s greatest gifts is his promise to hear and answer our prayers. After all, if God has already given his own Son for us, how will he not also graciously give us all things with him? (Romans 8:32).
And God specifically invites us to make use of this wonderful gift when we are anxious:
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” (Philippians 4:6)
But sometimes we’re too anxious even to cast our anxieties on God.
Perhaps you’re emotionally overwhelmed. Perhaps you’re exhausted, unwell, or have been living with a difficult situation for so long that you simply don’t know what to pray anymore.
Perhaps you can’t imagine how your problems could possibly be resolved, and so you don’t even know what to ask for.
Our weakness can make prayer itself feel like another impossible burden.
But Jesus teaches us to pray “Our Father” (Matthew 6:9). As Luther explains in his Small Catechism, this means God is tenderly inviting us to approach him with the confidence of beloved children asking their dear father.
Prayer is God’s gift to you, not another burden he places upon you.
Jesus explicitly teaches us that we are not heard because of how many words we say (Matthew 6:7–8). Nor does prayer depend on outward appearances, such as whether other people see us praying (Matthew 6:5–6).
Prayer is effective because your heavenly Father loves you, has made promises to you, and invites you to ask him for what you need.
And that means even the simplest prayer is effective. Our prayer is effective because of God and his promises in Christ, never because of us.
Throughout the Gospels, desperate people approach Jesus with just a few words:
- Blind Bartimaeus cries out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10:47).
- The Canaanite woman pleads, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David” (Matthew 15:22).
- The tax collector prays, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13).
All these people were asking Jesus to act toward them purely according to his grace, not according to what they deserved. They each had different specific situations. But they didn’t have to work out how their problems could be resolved, or somehow earn God’s intervention first. They could just hand him their problems and their contexts and ask him to intervene on the basis of his compassion and promises, rather than on the basis of their own obedience or ability to work out a path forward.
That’s what God’s mercy is. That’s how incredibly powerful it is.
For many centuries, Christians have made use of these words in a very simple form of prayer. It’s famously called the Jesus Prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
For many years I have found this such a helpful prayer in my own life.
When I was in a desperate situation in Africa, and didn’t even know what to think, I prayed this prayer continually. God answered it by leading me to the writings of Martin Chemnitz, and a pure, Lutheran, understanding of his unconditional goodness and mercy.
When I was in a desperate financial situation, with no idea how to move forward, I prayed this prayer continually. God answered it through someone unexpectedly giving my family a five figure sum so that we could repair our flat and I could build an office for my pastoral work.
When I was in a desperate personal situation because of a long-term problem I have no power over, literally crying every day because of the futility and loss my family and I had already endured, I prayed this prayer continually. I often couldn’t vocalise longer prayers, nor even concentrate while praying the Psalms. So I just recited the Jesus Prayer continually, bringing to mind individuals and situations I was asking God to bless and intervene. God answered, and some of the troubles had a surprising resolution. I’m still sitting with other troubles, and so I’m still praying; trying to trust the God who already sees the end from the beginning, even though I can’t even see the next step from the middle.
Living with difficult situations, even long-term, is normal in this life. The days of this life are evil.
Jesus doesn’t command those who follow him to escape this suffering, but to carry our own crosses behind him. Along with this command are many promises: he is praying for us (Romans 8:34), he will give us whatever we ask for in his name (John 14:13-14), the Spirit himself prays for us when we don’t know what to pray for (Romans 8:26).
Prayer begins with God’s unconditional goodness toward you, and doesn’t require any achieving any goal or reaching any standard on your part.
You don’t need to fast in some kind of hunger strike to get him to listen to you.
You don’t need to achieve some level of obedience to get him to care about you.
You don’t need to find some special words or formula.
Even repeating these words doesn’t make God more willing to listen. It simply makes use of the promises from the God who is hungry to listen because he loves you so much already.
God is in a good mood with you already. You see that when you look at Jesus. So when you’re tired, lying in the hospital bed, fed up of dealing with the kids, fighting that urge to sin, staring down a situation where there seems to be no hope or way out, your heavenly Father tenderly invites you to ask him for all good things in Jesus’ name.
And you can do that by repeating these words, whenever, wherever, however many times as you wish:
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
He has promised to be merciful to you.