The Mercy Prayer

Book excerpt: Lord, have mercy. A raw plea for intervention. The most common prayer in the Bible. And—most remarkably—a request that God has never failed to grant . . . often in surprising ways that have radically transformed individual lives and the trajectory of history itself. In The Mercy Prayer, Robert Gelinas explores the richness of God’s unfailing compassion by blending biblical insights with penetrating personal encounters and keen insight into familiar stories. The result is a practical guide for receiving the mercy we all desperately need and letting it flow from us into the lives of others. The Mercy Prayer reveals: How God’s abundant compassion is at the core of His character and was central to the earthly mission of Jesus The truth that simply praying the Mercy prayer and anticipating mercy’s arrival can soothe a wounded soul and change a life from the inside out Practical ways to carry God’s mercy into the muck and mire of a hurting world, offering comfort and hope in the name of Christ How you can make the most frequent prayer in the Bible your most prayed prayer, too, by learning to pray with every breath you take and every beat of your heart The Mercy Prayer invites each of us to become a student of heavenly compassion and clemency, to immerse ourselves in it, to embrace the responsibility of seeing all life in view of God’s mercy—and to watch as this simple-yet-profound cry reshapes us and our world. Everybody needs mercy.