You don't need a lot of fancy words to pray.

One word, shared in one sentence. It changed my prayer life.

I have had a lot of prayer partners over the years. In my early adult life, they were older women I hoped to glean life lessons from. Now I'm the older woman. We should always have someone we're learning from and someone learning from us.

I was feeling distressed. I had no idea what to do and it was wearing me down. My prayer partner was a pastor's widow. This dear old saint told me, "I learned a long time ago that sometimes the only thing we can pray is simply, 'Help!'"

Wow! How easy is that? I mused. I can do that.

I started praying this simple prayer when I was at my wits end. It gave such comfort. When I discovered I had aggressive breast cancer in my first year of marriage (my husband had lost his first wife to breast cancer also), I was at a loss for words to pray. No kidding. But this brought me through. "Help, Lord!" I would cry.

He did. Every day.

HELP FROM GOD'S WORD

Let's look to the Bible for some clues as to how and when the prayer "Help" might, well… help.

My process, which you can do on your own. As always, pray first when opening God's Word. Then to an electronic Bible search, (explained in a previous blog). I am going to the You Version app. I punch in the words "help" and "pray." I want to know which verses have both words in it. Here is what comes up, and more. In You Version you can choose sort order of relevance or traditional. Traditional usually lists them in order from Old Testament (OT) to the New Testament (NT).

Scroll through the whole list and read them for clues about the subject of prayer. Write down some notes and insights you see there. I also went to the search for help and God for more insights. I checked out if there were any added insights in looking at the word meanings in the original language. Those are Hebrew for the OT and Greek in the NT. I usually use Bible Hub App or www.biblehub.com. The observation of the words in the original language of the Bible follow true to the English definition. That is, it depicts responding in a need, especially in a crisis.

As I did this exercise myself, there were some words that stood out. I determined I could place them in a format to help us process them and perhaps remember them.

When you are HEARTBROKEN.

The normal human experience, even for Christians, is experiencing the tragedies and emotional upheaval of life. We will have heartbreak, desperation and dismay at times. I love the authenticity of the Bible. The Psalmist wrote over and over to hear his cry and his pleas for mercy. God invites us to be honest with Him in our pain. This is because He wants to be "God with us," Emmanuel," in all circumstances.

Psalm 18:6 But in my distress I cried out to the Lord; yes, I prayed to my God for help. He heard me from his sanctuary; my cry to him reached his ears.
Psalm 28:2 Listen to my prayer for mercy as I cry out to you for help, as I lift my hands toward your holy sanctuary.

You can HUMBLE YOURSELF.

You see in the verse directly above, the Psalmist lifts up his hands toward God. That is a posture of humility. We cannot figure this out on our own. We need Him. God will honor the humble heart. He will lift your spirit and give you strength.

I Peter 5: 6 So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.
Psalm 34:18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.

When you are EGOTISTIC.

When you try to tackle life on your own and are too proud to ask God for help, you are implying that you know better than God. Or just stubborn. As a single woman for many years I learned to carry my own suitcases and boxes. But now with back troubles, my husband will offer to carry something for me. I will insist I can do it and the next day be laid out in backache and headache. He really wants to help me, and will remind me that he does not want me to be laid out in pain the next day. Alas, it has taken me a long time to learn to accept his help. It takes even more effort for me to ask for his help. Crazy isn't it? I think God looks at us struggling sometimes and thinks, that's surely going to cause them pain. Why don't they ask me to help? It is such human nature to want to try to do life ourselves. With God, it really comes down to us not trusting that He is the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth, all knowing, all powerful One who knows us and loves us.

You can EXAMINE YOURSELF.

We learn from God's word that God really wants to help us, but he needs a heart that wants Him to help with a humble posture. We are dealing with a Holy God. Being mean spirited and full of defiant sin was the reason verses exist in the Bible that say God would not help them. It sounds so shocking. But think about it. If another adult kept insisting they don't want your help, even if they make things worse, you would respect that. God is a God who respects us. He should command our respect, but even if we don't give it to Him, He respects us. He does not help us much uninvited. He desires a relationship.

Jeremiah 11: 14-15 Pray no more for these people, Jeremiah. Do not weep or pray for them, for I will not listen to them when they cry out to me in distress. What right do my beloved people have to come to my Temple, when they have done so many immoral things? …They actually rejoice in doing evil!
Ps 26:2 Put me on trial, Lord, and cross-examine me. Test my motives and my heart.

When you are LIMITED IN OPTIONS.

This makes me think of the original Star Wars movie when Princess Leah had a hologram message sent through R2D2, to Obi-wan Kenobi. "Help me, Obi-wan Kenobi, you're my only hope."

There are times when we are humble before God. But we have run out of options, humanly speaking. It is a very vulnerable place to be. Even seasoned Christians find themselves at some point in their life surprisingly the end of themselves. There was a worship song popular a number of years ago that sang out, "Oh I… I'm desperate for you. Oh I… I'm lost without you." This is the idea. The idea that we cannot do this on our own strength.

Romans 8:26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.

You can LEAN ON HIM.

Have you ever tried to pray and you don't even know what to say because you are so hurt, so lost? This is when the "Help" prayer really comes in handy. Did you know prayer can sometimes be silent? Just start out with Help, and then trust the Holy Spirit to present in heaven what you cannot articulate on this earth and flood you with His presence. Focus on Him and your dependence on Him in your silence and let Him bring comfort to your heart.

I have learned to love this verse:

1 Peter 5:7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

You can tell your worries and cares to God. Sometimes it is good to compare different version of a verse in the Bible. What this version, the New Living Translation, does not show adequately is how to do it. At Bible Gateway.com, you find an easy way to compare translations. Under the verse is an option, Other Translations. When you click on that they all open.

The photo on the left shows a partial list of those that opened. Many versions say cast your cares. Others say "throw" as in throw your worries/anxieties on Him. Imagine casting or throwing something to someone. There is intentionality to it that is even forceful. The idea of that verb, in the original Greek language, as you might now guess, is about throwing something, as if to throw it away or throw it off yourself.

So for our HELP solution, we are to intentionally throw off our cares and deposit them in God's arms, as if we are getting rid of those worries. It is a much more active verb than a passive one. In the French translation there is a sense implied of putting all your weight on Him. That is why I say lean on Him. It is to depend on Him. To intentionally give it to God if it means giving back to Him again when you take it back. Be keeping a continual dialogue with Him, giving it again and again as needed.

When you are PROMISED.

If you look at the verse we just examined, it has a promise. He cares about you. Moving back over our verses you see in Romans 8:2 a promise. The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. Look at Psalm 139:18 which tells you two promises. 1. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted 2. He rescues those whose spirits are crushed.

As you read God's Word, such as this exercise recommended regarding the help search, you will find truths of God that are actually promises. Do not squander them or gloss them over as rhetoric. They are His promises of what He will do for you. You can even throw those back to God in prayer. Here is an example how to pray a promise.

"God you said you are close to the brokenhearted. I am brokenhearted over this situation. Please be close to me. Let me know it, Lord."

You can PERSEVERE.

Sometimes life seems crushing and we are brokenhearted and desperate. This is the context of Help prayers. But you will find you can go on, as you pray to Him and lean on Him. An excellent passage for this concept is:

Romans 5:3-5 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. ⁴And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. ⁵And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

As we learn to pray HELP for ourselves, we can also learn to pray it for others, too.

I Timothy 2:1 I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.

I leave you with this verse of great comfort that unites prayer with the grace God gives just when we need it.

Hebrews 4:16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.