The Seven Last Words of Jesus: How to Pray When Everything Is Falling Apart

How do you pray when everything is falling apart? Jesus shows us by example, and the principle is this: follow what you see the Father doing, not what you want the Father to do. Nowhere is that clearer than on the cross. In his darkest hours, Jesus kept his eyes on what he saw the Father doing — and it shows in the seven last statements he made before he died.

These seven words are not the random cries of a dying man. They are a window into how a Son prays under pressure — and they will teach you how to pray for yourself, your family, and your nation when the darkness gathers.

Father, forgive them

Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” And they divided His garments and cast lots.

Luke 23:34 (NKJV)

Why should we pray for God to forgive people who are actively doing evil? Because forgiveness creates room for repentance. And forgiveness makes room for repentance which, if refused, leaves a person without excuse before judgment.

When Jesus prayed “Father, forgive them,” did the Father forgive them? Yes. So why did judgment still fall on those who refused him? Because when they would not repent, they brought judgment on their own heads. This is why we must pray forgiveness over our nations. Nigeria as a people needs to repent — our political class needs to repent — but for that to happen, they need to know they are forgiven, so that they can repent. Forgiveness opens the door; each person must still walk through it.

And what does “they do not know what they are doing” mean? It means God’s will cannot be thwarted and God’s hand cannot be forced. If you have been a Christian for long, your own story of resistance is an illustration of the futility of resisting God. Every person’s life — believer or nonbeliever — will one day illustrate God’s glory: either as someone who said yes to God even though it cost, or as someone who said no because it cost too much. We were not created for our own glory; we were created for God’s. So those who oppress, those who cling to power at all cost — they do not know what they are doing. Whatever you try to hold on to at all cost begins to lose its significance from the moment you grip it that way. They are wasting their time resisting God.

Today you will be with me in paradise

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered the thief beside him, “today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). But do you realize that just before this man asked to be remembered, he too had been hurling insults at Jesus? Matthew tells us both rebels crucified with him heaped insults on him (Matthew 27:44). This man had been blaming God for what his life had become.

Then it dawned on him: here was a man still trusting in a good God while he himself was screaming, “Where is God?” Suddenly he realized — this is the Messiah. This is the One. And he turned, right there, from hurling insults and rejecting God to repentance. And Jesus met him with paradise, that same day.

Can we begin to pray this over our nation? “Lord, bring us into your paradise as we repent — from hating to love, from tribalism to humanity.” No one is too far gone. If a cursing thief can enter paradise in an afternoon, so can the person you have written off.

Woman, behold your son

When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

John 19:26–27 (NIV)

Mary stood there thinking she was losing a son — but Jesus was showing her she was gaining sons. John stood there thinking he was losing everything — but Jesus said, no, you are gaining an amazing mother, one who raised the Messiah.

I want us to begin to open our eyes to what we are gaining, not what we seem to be losing. And can we pray for relationships to be healed in the land? Okezie, behold Adamu your brother. Imaobong, behold Amina your sister. The cross does not just reconcile us to God; it hands us to one another as family.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

Matthew 27:46 (NIV)

This is one that many of us — myself included — have taken out of context. We often think Jesus was declaring that God had abandoned him. I don’t think so anymore, because Paul tells us that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. God did not leave the cross.

It reminds me of a post I saw on social media when our national crisis began: “It seems as if God has abandoned Nigeria.” That is how it feels. But listen — “My God, my God” is not the cry of a man whom God abandoned. It is the cry of a man exercising his faith in God, refusing to agree that what life throws at him is the same as God’s mind toward him.

Jesus was praying Psalm 22 — and if you read that psalm, you find a prayer that moves from anguish to confidence: “Our fathers trusted in You; they trusted, and You delivered them... You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts” (Psalm 22:4, 9). Even the words “why have You forsaken Me” are addressed to my God. Faith keeps hold of God even when it cannot feel his presence. This is the cry of faith in God in the midst of turbulence.

I thirst

“Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I am thirsty’” (John 19:28). This is the cry for help in the midst of utter helplessness. On April 9, 1940, when Hitler’s Germany attacked Denmark with motorized tanks and weapons no one had ever seen, do you know what Denmark fought back with? A bicycle battalion — men on bicycles with deer rifles, going out to face tanks. That is a picture of utter helplessness. And that is where Jesus hung — poured out, spent, with nothing left.

I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint... My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and My tongue clings to My jaws... But You, O LORD, do not be far from Me; O My Strength, hasten to help Me!

Psalm 22:14–15, 19 (NKJV)

Psalm 22 gives us the words beneath his words. What was Jesus saying when he cried “I thirst”? What was he muttering under his breath? O Lord, you are not far from me. O Lord, you are my strength. O Lord, you will hasten to help me. When you are utterly helpless, prayer does not deny the thirst — it directs the thirst toward the God who answers.

It is finished

“When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:30). This is the rejoicing of faith. Follow Psalm 22 to its end and you see it: the psalm that begins “why have You forsaken Me” turns on a single phrase — “You have answered Me” — and erupts into praise: “I will declare Your name to My brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise You... All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the LORD” (Psalm 22:22, 27). The prayer that began in darkness ends declaring that the kingdom is the LORD’s and he rules over the nations.

“It is finished” is not a sigh of defeat. It is faith announcing that everything the Father set out to do has been accomplished — that a posterity shall serve him, and a people yet unborn will hear it declared that “He has done this” (Psalm 22:30–31). Learn to end your prayers the way Jesus ended his: not rehearsing the problem, but rejoicing in the answer.

Father, into your hands I commit my spirit

Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.

Luke 23:46 (NIV)

Even this final word is a prayer from the Scriptures — Psalm 31:5. To the very last breath, Jesus was praying what he saw in the Father, entrusting everything to hands he knew were good. He began at the cross with “Father, forgive them,” and he ended with “Father, into your hands.” From first word to last, his eyes never left the Father.

Praying with your eyes on the Father

So here is what the seven last words teach us about prayer. Pray forgiveness over people and nations, because forgiveness makes room for repentance. Pray with hope for the worst offender, because a thief entered paradise the same afternoon he repented. Pray with eyes open to what you are gaining, not what you seem to be losing. Cry out in faith when God feels absent. Thirst toward him in your helplessness. Rejoice that the work is finished. And commit everything into his hands.

This week, take these seven statements and pray through them slowly — for yourself, for your family, for your nation. Follow what you see the Father doing, not what you want the Father to do. That is how the Son prayed in the dark. And it is how the dark was defeated.