What is my deepest need
    when I kneel to pray—
Is it for temporal goods,
    for vessel made of clay?

It’s true, the Master taught
    I am to ask for bread,
And should illness be my lot—
    have elders anoint my head.

Nothing is ever too small
    to escape my Father’s care.
Reluctant I should not be—
    all to take to him in prayer.

But what is my deepest need
    when I kneel to pray—
Is it for temporal goods,
    for vessel made of clay?

Is not my deepest need,
    when bowing low in prayer,
To confess my need for mercy,
    since debts are always there?

Should any child of God presume—
    “Perfection is now complete,
I always hit the mark of love,
    asking for mercy is obsolete”?

No, my Father in Heaven explains
    when coming before his throne,
My deepest need is mercy—
    without which I stand alone.