Prayers For A Covid Christmas

 

 

What does your prayer life look like in this covid Christmas season?

 

Mine could be summed up in three words:

 

Lord, have mercy

 

Well, maybe six words, because I often add, “Christ have mercy.” If I’m feeling especially verbose, I might say, “Lord, Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

 

Lord, have mercy, what has happened to my ability to pray?

 

Prior to covid life, my prayers were writerly in tone: eloquent, loquacious, filled with fancy words, (like loquacious) and long-winded. My husband’s short and sweet prayers drove me crazy. The running joke in our house was me teasing, “I pray better than you do!”

 

Not anymore. 

 

I don’t think there’s ever been a time when I’ve prayed so much while using so few words.

 

Lord have mercy. It’s the perfect prayer, don’t you think? Some days I shorten it even further:

 

HELP!

 

 

I mean, why beat around that burning bush? Let’s just slip off our shoes and get to the point:

 

We. Need. Help.

 

Sometimes I wonder if that desperate HELP! prayer isn’t the one the Father responds to the quickest.

 

If you’re a mom or dad, you know what I’m talking about. Don’t you come running when you hear your kids shout that word? And it doesn’t matter if they’re six or thirty-six. You drop everything and your feet hit the floor because your kid needs you.

 

I believe the Father does the same thing; He drops everything to rush to our aid. That one-word cry for help tells Him all He wants to know: we need Him. Desperately.

 

Guess what?

 

He loves to help

 

This is what He hears when you pray the help prayer:

 

“I’ve tried so hard to be good. I’ve done everything I know to do. I’ve prayed all the prayers, done my best to fix things, read my Bible, worked hard, but I’ve got nothing. Not one thing to show for it. I can’t do this by myself. I need you.”

 

Did you know that the word ‘pray’ comes from a root that means to beg? It’s the cry of a child. It’s the hardest prayer of all because it’s so humbling.

 

Help! is the beggar’s prayer.

 

Help! is the beggar’s prayer Share on X

 

 

My original plan for this post was to create a liturgy of covid Christmas prayers for you, (eloquent and loquacious, of course ) for the days when it’s just too overwhelming to come up with your own.

 

A prayer for gift giving. Prayers for holiday traditions. For loved ones out of work, out of money, out of ideas; the ones you can’t be with this holiday season and prayers for the sense of normalcy we all miss in this season.

 

But friends, the truth is, I’m a beggar. My prayer pockets are pretty much empty these days. This previously, loquacious writer has been reduced to one word… one four-letter, humbling, ridiculously all-sufficient word:

 

HELP!

 

 

It’s short but no less powerful for it’s brevity. Will you pray it with me (and for me?) as I pray it for you?

 

“Help me, oh help me, God, my God…” Ps 109:26 Msg

 

Let me know how He answers! (I can hear His footsteps already!)