Peter's Prayer

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Matthew 14:29b-30

Many sermons have been preached on this passage of Scripture focusing on Peter’s faith, or Peter’s doubt or Jesus’ ability to walk on water. But I want to focus on Peter’s prayer.‌‌ 

It’s so short, and so unlike how we normally think of prayer that it's easy to miss. But verse 30 tells us that beginning to sink, Peter cried out “Lord, save me!” A three word prayer. Yet, an effective prayer. A prayer that God heard and answered. It says that “immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.”

There isn’t much to parse out or dissect in a three word prayer. We don’t need to look at the original language or see how any of the words function in the sentence. Yet there is a powerful principle of prayer here for you if you will receive it.

‌‌Consider Peter’s situation. He is sinking. Now, it doesn't take a grown man long to sink in water, so Peter had very little time to formulate a perfect prayer. Peter didn’t have time for impressive words or arguments. He had to get a prayer out quick! And he did. And it worked.

‌‌What I want you to see is that prayer doesn’t always have to polished. It doesn’t have to be eloquent. It is perfectly acceptable for you to simply cry out to God for help. In fact, that is exactly what some circumstances call for. There are certain situations in life that call for immediate prayer... a prayer of the moment. Sometimes you can’t afford to wait until you get back home to your prayer closet to pray about something. Sometimes you have to pray right now!

There will be times in your life when you will only have a few seconds to pray, or times that you will only be able to pray in your mind as someone is talking to you. Times when all you have time to pray is “Lord, save me” or “Help me, Lord!” And I want you to know that God hears those prayers!

As a parent I know that whenever one of my children has yelled “Help!” my wife and I both came running. That “help!” was an incredibly effective way of getting our attention and getting a quick response out of us. An entire paragraph of well-reasoned requests for assistance could not have gotten us there as fast as “Help!”

So, don’t discount the power of that type of prayer in a moment of crisis. Don’t discount the power of crying out to God for help.