The Bible is filled with prayers—the prayer of Jabez (1 Chronicles 4:10), the prayer of Hannah (1 Samuel 1:11), Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the Jerusalem Temple (1 Kings 8:23-53), Jesus’ prayer for His followers (John 17:6-26), and more.
I have previously posted a blog called 10 Great Bible Prayers and How to Powerfully Bless Someone with 12 blessings from the Bible.
But that’s just scratching the surface. There are so many great Bible verses to pray, many of which are surprising and powerful. Here are just five of my favorites:
1) Pray for God to have your back.
In Isaiah 58:8, God envisioned a beautiful future for His people, and promised them: “The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard” (NIV). The “rear guard” protected an army from attacks from behind. So ask God to have your back, to protect you from sneak attacks and stabs-in-the-back.
Ask the OurPrayer team to pray for you!
2) Pray for God to lift your head.
When David was fleeing for his life from his own son, Absalom, he prayed, “You, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.” (Psalm 3:3, ESV). David’s lyric may have been intended to evoke the image of a father who lifts the chin of a tearful child. Or a nurse who lifts the head of a patient to take his medicine. Or a military officer whose command snaps up the head of a soldier. Or all of the above. So pray for God to lift your head.
3) Pray for God to sing to you.
Tucked away in the ancient prophecy of Zephaniah is a beautiful promise: “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17, NIV). It’s a great prayer to pray (especially at bedtime!), to ask God to sing to you.
4) Pray for God to “do it again!”
The ancient Jewish prophet Habakkuk began his prayer in Habakkuk 3, “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known” (Habakkuk 3:1, NIV). So think of a time when God did something beautiful in history, in your church, or in your life, and pray, “Do it again!”
Read More: Adding Your Words to God’s Words
5) Pray for an easier path.
Nobody wants more problems, right? We all would like a little easier path. Well, guess what? Some translators render a couple lines in Jesus’ model prayer of Matthew 6:9-13 as a plea to avoid not “temptation,” per se, but “hard testing.” One translation puts it like this: “And do not lead us into hard testing, but keep us safe from the Evil One” (Matthew 6:13, CJB). So go ahead, pray to be delivered from tough times and demanding trials.
These may not be new prayers to you, but they are among my favorite prayers to pray. Give them a try, and see what happens.
