The Jesus Prayer, counseling, mental health, pray, will, Lord, Jesus Christ

The Jesus Prayer is the simplest of prayers. It is the most powerful. "Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God have mercy on me" encapsulates everything we need. It is the "prayer of the heart." It is an 'arrow prayer' that pierces the darkest of times. It is simple enough that we can say it throughout the day, constantly calling upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We can pray it at night when we sleep.

And it shall come to pass
       That whoever calls on the name of the LORD
       Shall be saved.
       For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance,
       As the LORD has said,
       Among the remnant whom the LORD calls.²

When we say, "Lord" we are confessing that Jesus is Lord of our life. "Kurios," in Greek, means 'Lord," or the "Main One." When we call him Lord with our heart, we are turning our life over to him. We are acknowledging that he is the "Main One." He is so central to our life that we forget our worries, our problems, and our solutions. We are calling on him to help us. He is a hub of the wheel, not a spoke. He is our life, not a hobby that we fit into our busy schedule. When we call him, "Lord," we are acknowledging our own weakness. We are the "serf" in the feudal system of the kingdom of God and he is our Lord. We acknowledge him in all our ways, and he will direct our path.

We are surrendering when start this prayer. We are giving up our will, our plans, our ways. We start this prayer with "Lord..." and finish it with "...have mercy on me."

We call him Jesus, just as the Archangel Gabriel exclaimed to Mary when he said, you shall call him "Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."⁴ The word, "save" means to be made whole, to heal. Jesus will heal us from our sins. We need to call on him on a moment by moment basis. It is not an instantaneous healing, but a process. We say his name over and over. It is anything but a vain repetition when we say it with our heart. It is by this name that anyone is saved.

To be continued---

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