Louie Giglio: God's Mercy Is Found Only 20 Inches Away. Here's Where

By Brandon Showalter, Opinion writer and social commentator Saturday, July 16, 2016

Louie Giglio, founder of the youth-oriented Passion Movement and pastor of Passion City Church, leading prayer at Together 2016 on July 16, 2016, in Washington, D.C. | (Photo: Pulse)

WASHINGTON – Passion Movement founder Pastor Louie Giglio kneeled down on stage to lead tens of thousands of millennials to lift up a moving prayer in which at one point he said, "God's mercy is only 20 inches from us," at the Together 2016 event at the National Mall.

Noting that so many look to the power centers of the world for hope instead of God, Giglio said it is 227 miles to Wall Street, 2675 miles to Hollywood, 1500 steps to the Capitol, 800 steps to the White House, 372 miles to Cleveland (site of the Republican National Convention next week), 134 miles to Philadelphia (site of the Democratic National Convention the following week), and 482 miles to Bernie Sanders' House. But the most important journey everyone must take is the 20-inch journey from your knee to the ground, and that is where the mercy of God is found.

After inviting the massive crowd to kneel in silence for 30 seconds, Giglio prayed:

Father, see your people.

We are not too proud to bow down, we are not too confident to bow down. We know we don't have what it takes. We don't have the answers. We don't have the solutions. But as your people today we do know what we have and we have God Almighty on our side. So we bow down low and we lift you high today. We turn from our crazy, foolish ways.

We know that we've walked in our own sight, in our own strength, in our own understanding. We've turned away from you. We have neglected your Word, we have been hard in our hearts to your ways. We have deafened our ears to your Holy Spirit leading us. And we have lifted up every other name in this world more at times than the matchless name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

And so today here we are. We are humbled, we are bowed low, we are lifting our hearts, our hands, our hope, our voices, our eyes up to you and proclaiming that our God is the great God. You're the only true God. You are full of love, full of grace, full of mercy and full of truth. You love everybody in this city, everybody in this nation and everybody on this planet today. And Jesus, we thank you that you stepped off of your throne and you took the 20 inches to mercy in that Garden of Gethsemane when you said "God, not my will but your will be done." And you bowed down, you knelt down, you humbled yourself so that God's purposes could advance, and God's Kingdom could explode and grace and mercy could fall on every single one of us today.

I thank you that when they nailed you to the cross, Jesus, it wasn't death and defeat. It was life and victory for every single person on the planet today. We exalt you as the giver of life, the one who defeated death, the one who canceled all our guilt, the one who erased our shame, the one who loosed our chains, the one who set us free and breathed back into us the breath of everlasting life. We are alive today and not dead. That is our gospel and we praise you, Jesus. Have great glory here today. You are able, Jesus. You will see us ready and willing to follow you with boldness in whatever way you lead. This is our hope and prayer. In Jesus' name.

And all the people said,

Amen