Prayers in Scripture

Outside the Psalms there are many examples of God’s sons and daughters calling out to him in prayer. These can fuel and guide our prayers for ourselves or for others. Below are a few examples of prayers in Scripture — and there are many more!

Choose a prayer that relates to how you would like to pray for your situation or for others. Take a moment to commit the time to God. Next, slowly read through the prayer once to get an overall sense of its tone and structure. Then, use the prayer to guide and express your own heart to God. 

Possibilities include:

• Praying through the passage verse by verse
• Praying it verbatim, word for word
• Expanding on it to express your heart to God
• Paraphrasing the passage in your own words
• Writing down a personalized and paraphrased version of the prayer

If one verse or section of the passage seems especially relevant, take some more time praying through those verses.

Moses

For God’s presence and glory — Exodus 33:12-18

For mercy on Israel’s sin — Deuteronomy 9:26-29

Aaron

Priestly blessing — Numbers 6:24-26

Hannah

Praise for answered prayer — 1 Samuel 2:1-10

David

In response to Davidic covenant — 2 Samuel 7:18-29

For temple offerings — 1 Chronicles 29:10-19*

Solomon

For wisdom — 1 Kings 3:6-9

Dedicating the temple — 1 Kings 8:23-53

Hezekiah

For rescue — 2 Kings 19:15-19

Asa

For help in battle — 2 Chronicles 14:11

Jehoshaphat

For rescue from attack — 2 Chronicles 20:6-12*

Ezra

For forgiveness and help — Ezra 9:5-15

Nehemiah

Confession of Israel’s sins and for help — Neh. 1:5-11*

Israel’s confession of sins — Nehemiah 9:5-38

Job

Repentance — Job 42:1-6

Jeremiah

For judgment — Jeremiah 10:23-25, 12:1-4, 17:13-18, 18:19-23; Lamentations 1:20-22, 3:55-66

For restoration of Israel — Lamentations 5

Daniel

Confession for Israel — Daniel 9:1-19

Jonah

From the fish — Jonah 2:1-9*

Habakkuk

Praising God and prayer for mercy — Habakkuk 3

Jesus

Lord’s prayer — Matthew 6:9-13*

For His disciples — John 17

Disciples

For boldness — Acts 4:24-30 

Paul

Thanks and longing for the church — Romans 1:8-10

Thanks and prayer for the church — Ephesians 1:15-23

For filling with the fullness of God — Ephesians 3:14-21*

Thanks and prayer for the church — Colossians 1:3-14*

Thanks and blessing for the church — 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

In Heaven

Praise of God — Revelation 5:8-14*

*Starred prayers are good passages to begin with.