Closing prayers:

You metaphorically have 89 seconds to live.¹ Well, at least, until the world ends.

That’s the opinion of the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists who, in 2025, moved the iconic Doomsday Clock—a metaphor for estimating humanity’s proximity to catastrophe—from 90 seconds till midnight to 89 seconds till midnight, the closest they have ever considered the world to be to catastrophe.² According to the Science and Security Board, the threats posed by nuclear weapons, climate change, biological events, and the misuse of disruptive technologies have pushed civilization closer to the brink of extinction than ever before.

Eighty-nine seconds to go.

Better say your prayers. And if you do, what will you pray? Seriously, what do you pray when your time to pray is coming to an end? While the Doomsday Clock is not meant to be taken literally, Jesus is, and His words make it clear that the Judgment Day clock is rapidly ticking down (see Matt. 24; 25). If that is true, and time is short, how then should we pray?

The final quarter

Some team sports have four quarters of regulation play. Players use the early periods to size up the opposition, test their strengths and weaknesses, and determine their game plan. At halftime each team makes adjustments based on what they learned during the first half. The third quarter is more intense, and the speed of the game accelerates. But it is the fourth and final quarter that is the most important. And the final two minutes of the last quarter is when most games get won or lost. Here is a critical truth: the plays you call to win the game in the fourth quarter are very different from the ones employed in the first.

I believe the same is true of prayer. The world has entered the fourth and final quarter. In reality, given that all the major time prophecies have expired, we are in “overtime.” And the prayers we offer now to end the “game” in triumph may need to be different from those we have made before. It is time to pray differently—not only for more power to do great exploits for God in ministry but also for more humility to allow Him to perform great exploits of grace and transformation in our hearts. The final crisis we need to be concerned about the most involves surrendering self to the Holy Spirit. Consider with me four critical prayers I believe are relevant to the times just before Jesus returns.

Search me

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,}
And lead me in the way everlasting
(Ps. 139:23, 24, NKJV).

A bold invitation for God to open the closets and see what is in the deep dark corners; Psalm 139:23, 24 exemplifies how we need to pray if we are going to avoid end-time delusions.

Why do we need our hearts examined? I like the way the New Living Translation renders Jeremiah 17:9: “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” Listen carefully: The first warning Jesus gave the disciples about the end times was “ ‘Watch out that you are not deceived’ ” (Luke 21:8, NIV). If the human heart is the most deceitful of all things, the greatest deception we need protection from is not coming from the left or the right but from within! Without Christ, your heart is deceitful—you will lie to yourself. And you cannot afford that end-time delusion; neither can I.

We are living in a world of lies and liars. Misinformation, “alternative facts,” and just bald-faced lies are the air we breathe today. George Orwell is attributed with saying, “During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” What’s in your heart today? A closing prayer in preparation for the final crisis does not just ask God to do something for you; it asks Him to reveal something in you.

Father God, I believe You are coming soon, so I can’t afford to play games. I’m asking You to search me. Let me pass under the rod of Your inspection without fear because You are the Good Shepherd. You have given your life for the “sheep”—me. Search me, O God, and bring revival in my life. I ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Wake me

Narcolepsy is a serious condition. People with the disorder can fall asleep in the middle of any activity. You probably do not want an Uber driver with narcolepsy. Or a dentist during a root canal. Or a urologist during a vasectomy. The disorder can be dangerous just before probation closes and Jesus returns to earth. That is not the time to fake a prayer. Rather, it is the time to be wide awake. And human beings tend to succumb to spiritual narcolepsy at the worst possible times, as evidenced in the Garden of Gethsemane.

“When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. ‘Why are you sleeping?’ he asked them. ‘Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation’ ” (Luke 22:45, 46, NIV).

Ours is the age of being overwhelmed. We are exhausted mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. This condition is especially dangerous because we are most vulnerable to temptation and sin when we are worn out with worry and grief.

Earlier, when Jesus had taught His disciples to pray “ ‘Lead us not into temptation’ ” (Matt. 6:13), it was the temptation of choosing their own ways over those of God—leaning on their own understanding and being wise in their own eyes. Such was the very temptation Christ was battling in the Garden, and it is the very same one He did not want the disciples to succumb to. It is also the same temptation we face now and will again tomorrow in the final crisis. Is it worth it to do it God’s way? Is there another less costly option? It not only was the last temptation of Christ but also will be ours.

Having slept, Peter did not act according to the Spirit; he acted according to his own weak, unprepared flesh and lashed out with his sword to prevent Jesus’ arrest. But it was the wrong response, and Jesus rebuked him for his actions (Matt. 26:52). In our time of exhaustion, we must know how to respond appropriately in crisis. Wake me, Jesus, because when I sleep, I respond inappropriately in crisis.

As it became clear that Jesus was not going to defend Himself, the disciples fled. They could not understand what Jesus was doing because they had slept when they should have been praying! When we sleep instead of pray, the ways of God offend us, and we abandon Him. Wake me, Jesus, because when I sleep, I take offense at the ways of God.

Later Peter followed Jesus, but at a distance (Luke 22:54). When we sleep instead of pray, our relationship with God grows distant and strange. Wake me, Jesus, because when I sleep, I get more distant from my Savior.

Every time Peter slept when encouraged by Jesus to pray, he denied Him. Our danger is that if we sleep now, we, too, could end up denying our Lord. Wake me, Jesus, because when I sleep, I deny You.

In what areas of your life are you spiritually asleep? Where is the spirit willing but the flesh weak? Father God, wake me out of my spiritual stupor. Now is not the time for sleep—not this close to the end of all things. I confess my exhaustion to You, Lord. I am overwhelmed with sorrow over the sin I still find in my own life, as well as the sin I see in the world around me. Please open my eyes to recognize where my spirit is willing but my flesh is weak. Don’t let me sleep through a revolution and deny You, Lord. And thank You for never giving up on me.

Break me

“The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God” (Ps. 51:17, NLT).

Suffice it to say, here is a prayer nobody wants to offer, including me! But there can be no breakthrough without a breakdown. Breakthroughs begin at the altar of brokenness. Awakenings are preceded by breakings, and “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit” (v. 17, NKJV).

We must be broken to worship fully, serve freely, and repent deeply and humbly. True brokenness before God is not a one-time event. It is a daily choice to die to selfish pride and live as broken bread and poured out wine to bless others.

In the classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers writes, “If ever we are going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed; you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.”³

Where is God squeezing you right now? Where do you still need to be squeezed? Father, this is the scariest prayer of all. I want my life to be filled with the sweet aroma of Christ, but I smell too much of self. You know what to do, Lord. I do not. Help me. That’s all I have the courage to say. But do not leave me shut up to myself, deceived and unrepentant. Let me live a life that is broken and spilled out for You.

Send me

Once we have been searched, awakened, and broken, we will be ready to be used. In his book Dangerous Prayers, Craig Groeschel asks, “What if instead of always asking God to do something on our behalf, we dared to ask God to use us on his behalf?”⁴ To pray, “Lord, send me,” is to say, “Lord, use me.”

As crazy as it seems (and it looks crazier all the time!), God uses forgiven human beings precisely because they have been forgiven. We know what it is like to be weak, break our promises, doubt, and mess up and do stupid things. Angels do not. “Having been in peril themselves, they [humans] are acquainted with the dangers and difficulties of the way, and for this reason are called to reach out for others in like peril.”⁵ We are searched, awakened, and broken to be sent to save.

God gives you and me the privilege of being His first responders. He wants us to be like the firefighters and marines who, instead of running away from trouble, are the first to head toward it.

Send me, Lord, to bring light. Send me, Lord, to bring joy. Send me, Lord, to bring hope. But first cleanse me of all my foolishness and forgive my sins. Give me a new vision of who You are and who I am so that I may rightly represent You and prove Satan, not you, the liar.

These prayers reflect the primitive godliness we must possess before Jesus comes again. And praying them is the only way you and I will ever be a threat to the kingdom of darkness. With only “89 seconds” to go, now is our time to get in the game and make a difference. God is calling you! Will you say, “Here I am, search me; here I am, wake me; here I am, break me; here I am, send me”?