Book Review: The Mercy Prayer by Robert Gelinas

 Robert Gelinas says that Lord Have Mercy is the most prayed prayer in the Bible. He also says this is a request that God always grants. I just had to read this little book for just those reasons and I was not disappointed. I found it to be easy to understand, yet the message was profound throughout the book.

Much of the book deals with why we should pray the mercy prayer and in chapter 3 he challenges the reader to pray this prayer at bedtime: Lord, Son of Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me. He recommends praying it in tune with your heartbeat as you fall asleep and you will remember God's mercy whenever you wake up.

He also encourages the reader to have mercy on those around them. Someone once told me I have the gift of giving mercy (another reason I had to read the book). As Gelinas says in the book, we have been forgiven much, so we want to forgive if we can see how big of sinners we are. At the same time, he shares the story of Jesus cleansing the 10 lepers. Only one came back and said, "thank you." While we may expect others to be grateful when we show them mercy, we have a 90 percent chance that they will not show it--as they did not show it much of the time to Christ. I found that thought alone to be profound. It was a reminder to me to keep showing mercy as God requests in Micah 6:8 but to do so without expectations of what I might receive in return. He also shares ways he and his wife have shown mercy to others as well as ways he continues to pray the mercy prayer.

I recommend this book to everyone. After all, we are all sinners in need of mercy. . .and living in a world that desperately needs our mercy in return.

I received this book from Thomas Nelson. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for the book.