Here’s a tip for you, a prayer that always works, “Oh God, get me out of this mess.” Now don’t be surprised when you get some unexpected results from this prayer. You might find that you’ve lost your job, or that your wife has moved out, or that you’ve just checked yourself in for rehab. Just keep in mind that most folks praying those prayers don’t put any conditions on them. They’ve just hit rock bottom for the umpteenth time and need help. They need it so badly they will even turn to God.

I’ve been enjoying reading Craig Ferguson’s entertaining memoir, American on Purpose. Imagine my surprise when I came to page 166 and noticed an example of this kind of prayer. It comes on the heals of the breakup of a long-term relationship over his self-destructive alcoholic behavior:

“After she had gone, I went for a walk on the lonely Walberswick marshes outside the village. Out there I did something I hadn’t done since I was a farty wee schoolboy in the miserable damp town church. I prayed. I asked the God I still don’t really understand and have trouble believing in to help me—either to kill me or change me.

I had become something I despised, and I couldn’t break free of whatever spell had been cast. I was an inmate in a prison of my own construction. I told Him I was willing to go to any length to get out.

I don’t know if my prayers were answered, I’m not an Evangelical, or even a very religious person.

But things sure started moving quickly after that.”

As I was reading this passage this morning, my eyes welled up with tears. I was reminded that God loves us even before we have loved or believed in Him. I was reminded that He waits, like the Prodigal’s father, for us to turn toward him and then he happily goes into action to redeem us.

My heart-felt moment of desperate prayer came as I rode the Metrolink to Orange County about ten years ago. Amazing the rapidity of God’s intervention to get me off that train and back on the right track in my own life. Looking back, I can say that I see how He worked then, and when I stop long enough to think about it, I can see where He is working in my life now.

Take a few minutes and watch as John Wimber shares about one of those moments in his spiritual journey. It starts about 5 1/2 minutes into this youtube video:

My encouragement to you? Don’t wait until you are overwhelmed or bouncing off the rock bottom, just take a moment right now and pray that powerful prayer, “Oh God, help me.”