The Perfect Prayer for Every Distress

I’ve been using the perfect prayer too much lately.

It’s the perfect prayer for when you don’t know how to pray. Or for when you’re too overwhelmed to pray. It fits all situations. And every kind of despair.

It’s a prayer that fits this time in history, when our country is divided by an almost rabid tension over vaccinations and masks and freedom and opinions. And a prayer for when these tensions leak into families and friendships and churches and begin to corrode loving relationships.

It’s a prayer that works while you’re waiting for results from your own Covid test while praying for loved ones who already have it confirmed.

It works well with watching the news as you lift up heartbroken cries to God over Afghanistan and Haiti and hurricanes and fires and violence and hurting everywhere. It’s a prayer for stress at work and concerns in families.

It fits with medical tests that reveal cancer and decisions that need to be made. And with tragic news you hear from friends. It’s the cry of your heart when concerns for your children are breaking yours. And it’s the whisper to heaven when the nursing home calls with new worries.

It’s an easy prayer straight from the Bible. And it covers everything. And the world has had too much of everything lately.

So, though I diligently lift up heartfelt pleas over my prayer lists almost every day, sometimes I just look up to heaven and cry the perfect prayer.

I found it in Psalm 107. And it’s repeated four times in that chapter, after every struggle described.

“Lord, help” they cried in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress. (Psalm 107:6,13,19,28 New Living Translation.)

Lord, help!

The perfect prayer for every crisis. The prayer our whole world needs right now.

God is our loving Abba, Father. He hears our cries.

We had our two oldest granddaughters spend the night with us the other weekend. When we heard some thunder rumbles I asked my husband to go upstairs and check on the girls. He found the six year old huddled in the corner on her bed close to tears. He carried her downstairs and put her in my lap. And we talked.

She was afraid because the thunder had boomed. And she knew her parents were far away. And she had worries about not being at home. So we cuddled and talked and she calmed down and went back to bed and slept.

The world is a noisy, fearful, worrisome place these days. But our Abba Father says we can call out to Him at anytime, “Lord, help!” And He will hear. And He will hold us close. And He will comfort us with His love as we trust Him with our problems.

“Lord, help!” they cried in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress. He calmed the storm to a whisper and stilled the waves. What a blessing was that stillness as he brought them safely into the harbor! Let them praise the Lord for his great love and for the wonderful things he has done for them.” Psalm 107:28 – 31 (NLT)