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Prayer library

We offer a collection of prayers for those who are seeking inspiration for reflection.

Helpful links

For inspirational prayers, choose from the following list of prayer topics: anxietychildrencommunitydifferencefaith, familyhardship, helphopelifelovemission, musicpraisestrengthsuccess.

Anxiety

Prayer for trust in Jesus

O Christ Jesus,
when all is darkness
and we feel our weakness and helplessness,
give us the sense of Your presence,
Your love, and Your strength.
Help us to have perfect trust
in Your protecting love
and strengthening power,
so that nothing may frighten or worry us,
for, living close to You,
we shall see Your hand,
Your purpose, Your will through all things.
–St Ignatius of Loyola

Children

A morning prayer

Now, before I run to play,
Let me not forget to pray
To God who kept me through the night
And waked me with the morning light.
Help me, Lord, to love thee more
Than I ever loved before,
In my work and in my play
Be thou with me through the day.
Amen.
God hear my prayer

God in heaven hear my prayer,
keep me in thy loving care.
Be my guide in all I do,
Bless all those who love me too.
Amen.
For happy hearts

We thank You Lord, for happy hearts,
For rain and sunny weather.
We thank Thee, Lord, for this our food,
And that we are together.
A bedtime prayer

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep:
May God guard me through the night
And wake me with the morning light.
Amen.

 


Community

King Solomon’s blessing for the community
1 Kings 8:56–61

Praise be to the Lord,
who has given rest to his people Israel
just as he promised.
Not one word has failed
of all the good promises
he gave through his servant Moses.

May the Lord our God be with us
as he was with our ancestors;
may he never leave us nor forsake us.
May he turn our hearts to him,
to walk in obedience to him
and keep the commands, decrees and laws
he gave our ancestors.

And may these words of mine,
which I have prayed before the Lord,
be near to the Lord our God day and night,
that he may uphold the cause of his servant
and the cause of his people Israel
according to each day’s need.

So that all the peoples of the earth
may know that the Lord is God
and that there is no other.
And may your hearts be fully committed
to the Lord our God,
to live by his decrees and obey his commands,
as at this time.

 


Confession

A prayer of confession

Daniel 9:15–19

Now, Lord our God,
who brought your people
out of Egypt with a mighty hand
and who made for yourself
a name that endures to this day,
we have sinned,
we have done wrong.

Lord, in keeping
with all your righteous acts,
turn away your anger
and your wrath from Jerusalem,
your city, your holy hill.
Our sins and the iniquities
of our ancestors
have made Jerusalem
and your people
an object of scorn
to all those around us.

Now, our God,
hear the prayers
and petitions of your servant.
For your sake, Lord,
look with favour
on your desolate sanctuary.
Give ear, our God, and hear;
open your eyes and see
the desolation
of the city that bears your Name.

We do not make requests of you
because we are righteous,
but because of your great mercy.

Lord, listen! Lord, forgive!
Lord, hear and act!
For your sake, my God, do not delay,
because your city and your people
bear your Name.

Ezra’s corporate prayer of confession

Ezra 9:6–9

I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God,
to lift up my face to you,
because our sins
are higher than our heads
and our guilt has reached to the heavens.

From the days of our ancestors until now,
our guilt has been great.
Because of our sins,
we and our kings and our priests
have been subjected
to the sword and captivity,
to pillage and humiliation
at the hand of foreign kings,
as it is today.

But now, for a brief moment,
the Lord our God has been gracious
in leaving us a remnant
and giving us a firm place in his sanctuary,
and so our God gives light to our eyes
and a little relief in our bondage.
Though we are slaves,
our God has not forsaken us in our bondage.

He has shown us kindness
in the sight of the kings of Persia:
He has granted us new life
to rebuild the house of our God
and repair its ruins,
and he has given us a wall of protection
in Judah and Jerusalem.

 


Difference

Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon,
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light,
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much
seek to be consoled as to console,
not so much to be understood as to understand,
not so much to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
it is in dying that we awake to eternal life.
–St Francis of Assisi

Prayer for peace among nations

O Almighty God,
the Father of all humanity,
turn, we pray, the hearts of all peoples and their rulers,
that by the power of your Holy Spirit
peace may be established among the nations
on the foundation of justice, righteousness and truth;
through him who was lifted up on the cross
to draw all people to himself,
your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
–William Temple

 


Faith

Wesley Covenant Prayer

I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing, put me to suffering;
let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you,
exalted for you, or brought low for you;
let me be full,
let me be empty,
let me have all things,
let me have nothing:
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours. So be it.
And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.

John Wesley’s prayer for the day

O that we could begin this day
in devout meditations,
in joy unspeakable,
and in blessing and praising Thee,
who hast given us such good hope
and everlasting consolation.

Lift up our minds
above all these little things below,
which are apt to distract our thoughts;
and keep them above
till our hearts are fully bent
to seek Thee every day,
in the way wherein Jesus hath gone before us.

The Lord’s Prayer
(based on Matthew 6:9–13)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth
as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and for ever.
Amen.

A prayer for seeking God

O Lord my God,
Teach my heart this day where and how to see you,
Where and how to find you.
You have made me and remade me,
And you have bestowed on me
All the good things I possess,
And still I do not know you.
I have not yet done that
For which I was made.
Teach me to seek you,
For I cannot seek you
Unless you teach me,
Or find you
Unless you show yourself to me.
Let me seek you in my desire,
Let me desire you in my seeking.
Let me find you by loving you,
Let me love you when I find you.
–St Anselm

 


Family

An evening family prayer

Lord, behold our family here assembled.
We thank you for this place in which we dwell,
for the love that unites us,
for the peace accorded to us this day,
for the hope with which we expect the morrow;
for the health, the work, the food and the bright skies
that make our lives delightful;
for our friends in all parts of the earth.
Amen.
–Robert Louis Stevenson

 

A prayer for those who have no work


God of compassion,
we remember those who suffer want and anxiety
because they have no work.
Guide the people of this land to use our wealth
so that all may find fulfilling employment
and receive just payment for their labour;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Habakkuk 3:17–19

Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls.

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Saviour.
The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.

I cry to you prayer

O God, early in the morning I cry to you.
Help me to pray
And to concentrate my thoughts on you:
I cannot do this alone.
In me there is darkness,
But with you there is light;
I am lonely, but you do not leave me;
I am feeble in heart, but with you there is help;
I am restless, but with you there is peace.
In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience;
I do not understand your ways,
But you know the way for me …
Restore me to liberty,
And enable me to live now
That I may answer before you and before me.
Lord, whatever this day may bring,
Your name be praised.
–Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 


Help

Psalm 27:7–14

Hear my voice when I call, Lord;
be merciful to me and answer me.
My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”
Your face, Lord, I will seek.
Do not hide your face from me,
do not turn your servant away in anger;
you have been my helper.

Do not reject me or forsake me,
God my Saviour.
Though my father and mother forsake me,
the Lord will receive me.

Teach me your way, Lord;
lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors.
Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
for false witnesses rise up against me,
spouting malicious accusations.

I remain confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

Psalm 121

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

King Jehoshaphat’s cry for help
2 Chronicles 20:6–12

Lord, the God of our ancestors,
are you not the God who is in heaven?
You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations.
Power and might are in your hand,
and no one can withstand you.

Our God, did you not drive out
the inhabitants of this land
before your people Israel
and give it forever
to the descendants
of Abraham your friend?

They have lived in it
and have built in it
a sanctuary for your Name, saying,
“If calamity comes upon us,
whether the sword of judgment,
or plague or famine,
we will stand in your presence
before this temple that bears your Name
and will cry out to you in our distress,
and you will hear us and save us.”

But now here are men
from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir,
whose territory you would not allow
Israel to invade
when they came from Egypt;
so they turned away from them
and did not destroy them.

See how they are repaying us
by coming to drive us out
of the possession you gave us
as an inheritance.

Our God, will you not judge them?
For we have no power
to face this vast army
that is attacking us.
We do not know what to do,
but our eyes are on you.

 


Hope

A blessing of peace

May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received,
and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing that you are a child of God.
Let this presence settle into our bones,
and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.
It is there for each and every one.
–St Teresa of Avila

 


Life

The Serenity Prayer

God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.
–Reinhold Niebuhr

Martin Luther’s Morning Prayer

My Heavenly Father,
I thank You, through Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son,
that You kept me safe from all evil and danger last night.
Save me, I pray, today as well, from every evil and sin,
so that all I do and the way that I live will please you.
I put myself in your care, body and soul and all that I have.
Let Your holy Angels be with me, so that the evil enemy will
not gain power over me.
Amen.

Martin Luther’s Evening Prayer

My Heavenly Father,
I thank You, through Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son,
that You have protected me, by Your grace.
Forgive, I pray, all my sins and the evil I have done.
Protect me, by Your grace, tonight.
I put myself in your care, body and soul and all that I have.
Let Your holy angels be with me, so that the evil enemy will not gain power over me.
Amen.

 


Love

Paul’s prayer for the Philippians
Philippians 1:3–11

I thank my God every time I remember you.

And this is my prayer:
that your love may abound
more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,
so that you may be able to discern what is best
and may be pure and blameless
for the day of Christ,
filled with the fruit of righteousness
that comes through Jesus Christ—
to the glory and praise of God.

A prayer for seeking God

O Lord my God,
Teach my heart this day where and how to see you,
Where and how to find you.
You have made me and remade me,
And you have bestowed on me
All the good things I possess,
And still I do not know you.
I have not yet done that
For which I was made.
Teach me to seek you,
For I cannot seek you
Unless you teach me,
Or find you
Unless you show yourself to me.
Let me seek you in my desire,
Let me desire you in my seeking.
Let me find you by loving you,
Let me love you when I find you.
–St Anselm

 


Mission

Jesus’ prayer for His disciples
John 17:5–18

And now, Father,
glorify me in your presence
with the glory I had with you
before the world began.
I have revealed you to those
whom you gave me out of the world.
They were yours; you gave them to me
and they have obeyed your word.

Now they know that everything
you have given me comes from you.
For I gave them the words you gave me
and they accepted them.
They knew with certainty
that I came from you,
and they believed that you sent me.

I pray for them.
I am not praying for the world,
but for those you have given me,
for they are yours.
All I have is yours,
and all you have is mine.
And glory has come to me through them.
I will remain in the world no longer,
but they are still in the world,
and I am coming to you.

Holy Father,
protect them by the power of your name,
the name you gave me,
so that they may be one as we are one.
While I was with them, I protected them
and kept them safe by that name you gave me.
None has been lost
except the one doomed to destruction
so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

I am coming to you now,
but I say these things
while I am still in the world,
so that they may have
the full measure of my joy within them.
I have given them your word
and the world has hated them,
for they are not of the world
any more than I am of the world.

My prayer is not that you
take them out of the world
but that you protect them
from the evil one.
They are not of the world,
even as I am not of it.
Sanctify them by the truth;
your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world,
I have sent them into the world.

Jesus’ prayer for all believers
John 17:20–26

I pray also for those
who will believe in me
through their message,
that all of them
may be one, Father,
just as you are in me
and I am in you.

May they also be in us
so that the world may believe
that you have sent me.
I have given them the glory
that you gave me,
that they may be one
as we are one—
I in them and you in me—
so that they may be brought to complete unity.

Then the world will know
that you sent me
and have loved them
even as you have loved me.
Father, I want those you have given me
to be with me where I am,
and to see my glory,
the glory you have given me
because you loved me
before the creation of the world.

Righteous Father,
though the world does not know you,
I know you,
and they know that you have sent me.
I have made you known to them,
and will continue to make you known
in order that the love you have for me
may be in them
and that I myself
may be in them.

A prayer for the Church

Gracious God,
you have called us to be the Church of Jesus Christ
Keep us one in faith and service;
breaking bread together
and telling the good news to the world;
that all may believe you are love,
turn to your ways, and live to your glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Lord keep us steadfast in Your Word

Lord, keep us steadfast in your word;
curb those who by deceit or sword
would wrest the kingdom from your Son
and bring to nothing all he’s done.
Lord Jesus Christ, your power make known,
for you are Lord of Lords alone;
defend your holy church, that we
may sing your praise eternally.
O Comforter of priceless worth,
grant one mind to your flock on earth
support us in our final strife,
and lead us out of death to life.
–Martin Luther

 


Music

Psalm 150

Praise the Lord.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
praise him with timbrel and dancing,
praise him with the strings and pipe,
praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.

 


Praise

Grace

O Lord, bless this food to our use,
and us to your service;
make us grateful for all your mercies,
and mindful of the needs of others.
Amen.

Psalm 84

How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty!
My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may have her young—
a place near your altar, Lord Almighty,
my King and my God.

Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
they are ever praising you.
Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baka,
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion.

Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty;
listen to me, God of Jacob.
Look on our shield, O God;
look with favour on your anointed one.
Better is one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
the Lord bestows favour and honour;
no good thing does he withhold
from those whose walk is blameless.
Lord Almighty, blessed are those who trust in you.

Doxology
Jude 1:24–25

To him who is able
to keep you from stumbling
and to present you
before his glorious presence
without fault and with great joy—
to the only God our Saviour
be glory, majesty, power and authority,
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
before all ages,
now and forever more!
Amen.

Psalm 8

Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold
against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.

When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what are mere mortals
that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?

You have made them a little lower
than the heavenly beings
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You made them rulers
over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.

Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

 


Strength

Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians
Ephesians 3:14–21

For this reason I kneel before the Father,
from whom every family
in heaven and on earth derives its name.
I pray that out of his glorious riches
he may strengthen you with power
through his Spirit in your inner being,
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

And I pray that you,
being rooted and established in love,
may have power, together with all the Lord’s people,
to grasp how wide and long
and high and deep is the love of Christ,
and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—
that you may be filled to the measure
of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more
than all we ask or imagine,
according to his power that is at work within us,
to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations,
for ever and ever!
Amen.

Psalm 46:1–11

God is our refuge and strength,
an ever present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear,
though the earth give way
and the mountains fall
into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.

There is a river whose streams
make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.

Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Come and see what the Lord has done,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.

“Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”

The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Make Me Brave for Life

God, make me brave for life:
oh, braver than this.
Let me straighten after pain,
as a tree straightens after the rain,
Shining and lovely again.
God, make me brave for life;
much braver than this.
As the blown grass lifts, let me rise
From sorrow with quiet eyes,
Knowing Thy way is wise.
God, make me brave, life brings
Such blinding things.
Help me to keep my sight;
Help me to see aright
That out of dark comes light.

 


Success

Paul’s prayer for the Colossians
Colossians 1:9–14

For this reason,
since the day we heard about you,
we have not stopped praying for you.

We continually ask God
to fill you with the knowledge of his will
through all the wisdom and understanding
that the Spirit gives,
so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord
and please him in every way:
bearing fruit in every good work,
growing in the knowledge of God,
being strengthened with all power
according to his glorious might
so that you may have
great endurance and patience,
and giving joyful thanks to the Father,
who has qualified you to share in the inheritance
of his people in the kingdom of light.

For he has rescued us
from the dominion of darkness
and brought us into the kingdom
of the Son he loves,
in whom we have redemption,
the forgiveness of sins. 

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