Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
9 4 2026
21 Seconds That Can Change Your World
When You Don’t Know What Else to Pray
There are times in life when you don’t know what to pray. You may know you need God, but the words just don’t come.
Your mind is exhausted, your heart is heavy, and even trying to put your thoughts into a prayer
feels like one more thing you don’t have the strength to do.
I think that is one reason Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer.
He didn’t just tell us to pray. He gave us words.
Several years ago, I gave away a couple dozen copies of Dr. Mark Rutland’s book 21 Seconds to Change Your World
as Christmas gifts. People are still telling me how much that little book changed their lives.
I highly recommend it because its message is so simple: sometimes the most powerful prayer life begins
when we stop trying to impress God with our prayers and simply learn to pray the words Jesus gave us.
Rutland tells the story of an elderly World War II combat veteran who had been haunted by one horrific moment since 1943. During battle, he fired into an enemy machine-gun position, not realizing civilians were being used as human shields. By the time he saw them, it was too late. A child’s arm flew through the air and struck him in the face. He carried that image for decades.
Night after night, he woke screaming from the same nightmare. He and his wife were overwhelmed by it.
Then something changed.
They began praying the Lord’s Prayer together every night. They worked their way through that terrible memory, bringing it before God again and again. And eventually, the veteran experienced something he had not known since 1943: a night of peaceful sleep.
He described the Lord’s Prayer as his best friend. Psalm 23 became his second best friend. Together, these ancient words became instruments God used in the restoration of his soul.
Think about that.
The words didn’t magically erase his past. They didn’t pretend the horror had never happened. But they gave him a way to bring his wounded soul back into the presence of God.
That is prayer.
Sometimes we think prayer has to be long. We think we need the right words, the right emotions, the right amount of faith. But Jesus never made prayer complicated.
“Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.”
It begins with relationship. How could it be anything but?
Our Father.
Before we ask God for anything, Jesus reminds us who we are talking to. We are not speaking into the darkness. We are speaking to our Father.
Then:
“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”
That may be one of the hardest prayers we will ever pray. Because we naturally want, “My kingdom come. My will be done.” But Jesus teaches us to surrender.
Dr. Rutland places particular emphasis on the King James wording, “in earth.” He connects it to the idea of our earthly, human lives becoming surrendered vessels for God’s purposes. In other words, we aren’t simply asking God to change the world around us. We are asking Him to change us.
Then Jesus brings prayer down to where we live every day: “Give us this day our daily bread.”
Not tomorrow’s bread. Today’s. That is comforting because God knows we can only live one day at a time.
Then: “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
Now prayer gets personal.
We need forgiveness, and Jesus connects receiving forgiveness with extending forgiveness. Sometimes the thing keeping our soul restless isn’t what someone did to us. Sometimes it is what we continue carrying because we haven’t surrendered it to God.
And finally: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
We are admitting something every mature believer eventually discovers:
I need help. I cannot do this alone.
That is the beauty of the Lord’s Prayer. It moves from God’s holiness, to God’s kingdom, to God’s will, to our daily needs, our forgiveness, and our protection. Rutland describes these as six petitions…three centered on God’s glory and three centered on our human needs.
And here is something that amazed me. The Lord’s Prayer takes about 21 seconds to say.
Twenty-one seconds.
Rutland points out that even praying it five times a day would take less than two minutes.
Two minutes.
Most of us would say we don’t have time to pray, yet somehow we find time to scroll, worry, replay conversations, imagine worst-case scenarios, and carry burdens God never asked us to carry alone. Did you know the majority of so called Christians do not pray for two mins. Daily?
What if we gave God two minutes?
Not rushed. Not mechanical. Not simply reciting words so we can check prayer off our list.
But slowly.
Our Father. Pause.
Hallowed be Your name. Pause.
Your kingdom come. Pause.
Your will be done. Pause.
Give us this day our daily bread. Pause.
Forgive us. Pause. Lead us. Deliver us.
And suddenly those 21 seconds aren’t just words. They become an invitation. An invitation to stop… to breathe… to surrender.
An invitation to remember that you are not carrying this life by yourself.
Psalm 23 says, “He restores my soul.”
Not once. Not only when everything falls apart.
He restores. Again and again.
Rutland sees a remarkable connection between Psalm 23 and the Lord’s Prayer: the Shepherd who provides, leads, restores, protects, and ultimately brings us home is the same Father Jesus teaches us to approach in prayer.
Maybe your soul needs restoring today. Maybe you are carrying something from yesterday that followed you into today.
Maybe you are praying for a marriage, a child, a friend, a job, your health, your future, or simply enough strength to get through the day. You don’t have to find the perfect words. Jesus already gave you words. So tonight, before you reach for your phone, before you replay the day, before you allow worry to have the final word, take 21 seconds.
Slow down. Pray the prayer Jesus taught you. You know it by heart. And then pray Psalm 23.
Let the words become your words. Let them remind you who your Father is. Let them remind you that He is your Shepherd.
And let Him begin the work only He can do: restoring your soul.
Because sometimes God changes a world in ways we never expected.
And sometimes He begins by changing the world inside of us…21 seconds at a time.
Thank you for spending these few minutes with me today. My prayer is that these devotionals don’t simply give you something to think about, but draw you into a deeper love for Jesus Christ and community.
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If you’d like to go even deeper, I’d love to invite you to join me beginning Tuesday, September 8th, for my free six-week online course, Discovering Jesus. We’ll meet Tuesday evenings from 7:00–8:30 p.m. as we explore the foundational truths of our faith and, more importantly, deepen our relationship with Christ. You’re welcome to invite your spouse, family members, friends, or neighbors. I’ll provide all of the materials at no charge. Just let me know. . To join the video meeting, click this link: https://meet.google.com/zkb-dxcq-iau
Until next time, keep your eyes on Jesus…because He truly is the Treasure.
God of Revival Jen and Brian Johnson
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