Short Prayers

Two Biblical Examples

Prayer is a conversation — a dialogue between God and us.

We believe that when we pray — when we speak to God — God listens. We also believe that God finds ways to “speak” to us. While God apparently does not speak in an audible voice too often, we believe that God is wise enough, powerful enough, and creative enough to find ways to make God’s ways and messages known to us.

For Christians, the most obvious ways that God reveals God’s ways is through the life and work of Jesus Christ. When we learn about how Jesus interacted and worked among people in his earthly ministry, we see the heartbeat and intentions of God.

When we speak to God, it is completely appropriate, and even expected, that we spend more than a short time in conversation. The Bible contains prayers of all lengths. Entire sections of the Book of Psalms are lengthy prayers in song form. Old Testament prophets and leaders express long prayers to God, as well. Jesus himself models long hours of prayer several times, and we have a few examples of Jesus’s actual words in prayer. Notably, what we call “The Lord’s Prayer” (the “Our Father” prayer as it is also called), spoken by Jesus in both Matthew and Luke, is not only an orderly model of prayer, it is also a prayer often repeated in worship services.

Jesus also shares a relatively long prayer in John 17. The entire chapter quotes Jesus praying to the Father for himself, for his disciples, and even for disciples who will come along in the future!

The Bible, Christian tradition, and Christian worship place a high priority on prayer and emphasizes extended times of both personal and corporate (group) prayer as normative for the Christian life. In fact, this kind of intentional, consistent prayer has been called the “breath” of the Christian, since it is part of an ongoing relationship with God through a sacred dialogue. In over four decades of my own Christian faith — flawed at times though it may have been — I have come to value sitting quietly before God, lifting up requests and concerns, and silently listening for guidance and peace from God. It sets the tone of my whole life and is the reason, I believe, that anything good or productive in my own life is the result of this time with God in prayer, along with the prayers of others on my behalf.

I also like that the Bible and our lives also include moments of shorter prayers. For instance, in the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel the prophet, Ezekiel is given a vision from God of a valley full of dry bones lying in a field. God asks the prophet, “Can these dry bones live again?” Ezekiel’s answer is one of the shortest prayers in the Bible: four words in English. Instead of rushing in and trying to knit the bones together on his own, Ezekiel gives the only “right” answer: “Lord, only you know” (Ezekiel 37:3). God then proceeds to instruct Ezekiel about what part the prophet can play in the process of “brining the bones to life” (see the whole story for yourself and the meaning of the vision in Ezekiel 37!). It’s a short prayer in response to God, but it’s effective.

Centuries later, a group of Jesus’s followers are out in a boat in the middle of stormy waters, and they are terrified. Since most of these disciples were fishermen, for them to be terrified on a boat demonstrates the serious nature of the storm. Jesus, whom they had left on the shore, is then seen walking by them on the water. It’s a miracle of course, and the Gospel of Matthew notes that Jesus had been praying for a long time on a mountainside as these guys were out in the boat. As Jesus comes walking toward the boat, the disciples were even more afraid, thinking it was a ghost. In ancient tradition, it was believed that if you see a ghost, you are likely to become a “ghost” very soon! The apparent apparition on the water calls out, telling the disciples not to fear: “Take courage! It is I. Do not be afraid,” Jesus says (Matthew 14:27). Peter, being a bit skeptical but also being a curious and talkative person, tells the walker that if he really is Jesus, he must invite Peter to walk out there with him! Jesus invites him to do so, and Peter also walks toward Jesus on the water.

However, shortly after Peter takes a few steps, he ends up praying what is probably the shortest recorded biblical prayer. Peter takes his eyes off of Jesus, focuses upon the storms and waves, and begins to sink. As he begins to sink, Peter prays a short prayer on the way down: “Lord, save me!” These three words in a times of crisis was all he needed. Jesus reaches down, rescues Peter from drowning, and escorts him back to the boat before calming the waves (see Matthew 14:30-33).

There is much to say about prayer and about the two short prayers just mentioned. Many sermons and lessons have been shared about Ezekiel 37 and the account of Jesus walking on the water, which is actually mentioned in three of the four Gospels. I am comforted by at least one thing in both stories. Even though God values long times of prayer, and we benefit from long times of prayer, in those times when we can only cry out in short prayers — prayers like, “Lord, save me!” — God hears…and God responds. Thanks be to God!