The Prayer That Kept Him Running

In the 2016 film Hacksaw Ridge, there is a scene that should bring every believer to their knees. Desmond Doss, a combat medic who refused to carry a weapon, stands alone on the Makapoo Escarpment after his entire company has been driven back by Japanese forces. The battlefield is a wasteland of smoke and screaming wounded. Every rational instinct says to retreat. Instead, Doss drops to his knees and prays one of the simplest, most desperate prayers ever captured on film: "Lord, help me get one more."

Then he runs back into the fire. He finds a wounded soldier, drags him to the cliff's edge, and lowers him to safety on a rope. And then he prays it again. "Help me get one more." He does this all night long — seventy-five men saved without firing a single shot.

What strikes me is that Doss never prayed for the courage to save seventy-five men. That prayer would have crushed him. He asked for the courage to save one. Then one more. Then one more after that.

This is how the Almighty builds courage in us. Not all at once, but one act of obedience at a time. Joshua 1:9 does not say, "Be courageous because the road ahead is easy." It says, "Be strong and courageous, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

You may not need courage for seventy-five. But you need it for one more. Ask Him for that.