Bible Prayers to Guide Your Life

By Jack Countryman

For all of us who struggle to hold tightly to our faith amid struggles or to find the words for prayer, this book of topically organized scripture offers prayers straight from the Bible that will equip you with the tools you need to guide your life each day.

So often, we want to pray but don't know what to say. Bible Prayers to Guide Your Life, from bestselling author Jack Countryman, includes prayers from Abraham, Mary, Jesus, and other biblical characters who cried out to God in need, obedience, and praise—and show us how to do the same.

As you pray words straight from the Bible, you will discover more about:

• God's power to answer us when we call to Him
• Effective strategies for preparing your mind and heart for prayer
• Claiming God's promises for healing and protection
• Receiving comfort through the Psalms
• Drawing closer to God through thanksgiving and praise

Most of all, immersing yourself in these biblical prayers—or simply turning to a topic based on the longings of your soul—will remind you that God loves to hear the questions of your mind, the words of your mouth, and the cries of your heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Release date: May 9, 2023
• ISBN: 9781400241941

Jack Countryman

Jack Countryman is the founder of JCountryman gift books, a division of Thomas Nelson, and is the recipient of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association's Kip Jordan Lifetime Achievement Award. Over the past 30 years, he has developed bestselling gift books such as God's Promises for Your Every Need, God's Promises for Men, God's Promises for Women, God Listens, and Red Letter Words of Jesus. Countryman's books have sold more than 27 million units. His graduation books alone have sold nearly 2 million units.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

The Bible is filled with everything you would want to know about leading a prayerful life. With scripture on topics such as prayer promises, preparation for prayer, and attitude and conditions for prayer, you will find what God’s Word reveals about prayer.

Jeremiah 33:3 says, Call to Me and I will answer you, and tell you [and even show you] great and mighty things, [things which have been confined and hidden], which you do not know and understand and cannot distinguish (AMP). This book has been designed to open your mind and heart to God’s Word and to show how much God wants us to communicate with Him through prayer. Our hope is that this book will touch your life in such a way that you will have a deeper relationship with our heavenly Father. He is waiting patiently for us to come to Him in prayer. May this book be a blessing to you as you deepen your prayer life.

AMAZING ANSWERS TO PRAYER

In this portion of the book, we will explore how twenty-three characters in the Bible cried out to God and how He answered their prayers. This section clearly demonstrates how much God wants us to communicate with Him in prayer. We belong to the Father, and He wishes to interact with us in our daily lives.

As you read through these answered prayers, open your mind and heart to communicate with the Savior. He is waiting for you and wants to answer your prayers and live in the center of your life. The Holy Spirit has promised to guide us in a deeper prayer life. As the psalmist says in Psalm 19:14, Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.

ABRAHAM

Prayer: Abraham for a child

Abram said, Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? . . . Then He brought him outside and said, Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them. And He said to him, So shall your descendants be.

And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

GENESIS 15:2, 5–6

Answer

The LORD visited Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him—whom Sarah bore to him—Isaac.

GENESIS 21:1–3

Prayer: Abraham intercedes for Sodom

Abraham came near and said, Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

So the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.

Then Abraham answered and said, Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: Suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous; would You destroy all of the city for lack of five?

So He said, If I find there forty-five, I will not destroy it.

And he spoke to Him yet again and said, Suppose there should be forty found there?

So He said, I will not do it for the sake of forty.

Then he said, Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Suppose thirty should be found there?

So He said, I will not do it if I find thirty there.

And he said, Indeed now, I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: Suppose twenty should be found there?

So He said, I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty.

Then he said, Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more: Suppose ten should be found there?

And He said, I will not destroy it for the sake of ten. So the Lord went His way as soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place.

GENESIS 18:23–33

Answer

And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt.

GENESIS 19:29

Prayer: Abraham’s confidence in God

Abraham said, My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering. So the two of them went together.

GENESIS 22:8

Answer

Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.

GENESIS 22:13

Prayer: Abraham prays for Isaac’s wife

So Abraham said to the oldest servant of his house, who ruled over all that he had, Please, put your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell; but you shall go to my country and to my family, and take a wife for my son Isaac.

GENESIS 24:2–4

Answer

Here is Rebekah before you; take her and go, and let her be your master’s son’s wife, as the LORD has spoken.

GENESIS 24:51

JACOB

Prayer: Jacob prays for deliverance

Then Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you’: . . . Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children.

GENESIS 32:9, 11

Answer

For You said, ‘I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’

GENESIS 32:12

RACHEL

Prayer: Rachel prays for a child

Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, Give me children, or else I die!

And Jacob’s anger was aroused against Rachel, and he said, Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?

GENESIS 30:1–2

Answer

Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. And she conceived and bore a son, and said, God has taken away my reproach. So she called his name Joseph, and said, The LORD shall add to me another son.

GENESIS 30:22–24

ISRAEL

Prayer: Israel cries for deliverance

Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.

EXODUS 2:23

Answer

So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.

EXODUS 2:24–25

MOSES

Prayer: Moses prays for grace

Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.

EXODUS 32:13

Answer

Nevertheless He regarded their affliction,

When He heard their cry;

And for their sake He remembered His covenant,

And relented according to the multitude of His mercies.

PSALM 106:44–45

Prayer: Moses prays for glory

And he said, Please, show me Your glory.

EXODUS 33:18

Answer

Then He said, I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

EXODUS 33:19

Prayer: Moses prays for the scattering of enemies

So they departed from the mountain of the LORD on a journey of three days; and the ark of the covenant of the LORD went before them for the three days’ journey, to search out a resting place for them. And the cloud of the LORD was above them by day when they went out from the camp.

So it was, whenever the ark set out, that Moses said:

"Rise up, O LORD!

Let Your enemies be scattered,

And let those who hate You flee before You."

And when it rested, he said:

"Return, O LORD,

To the many thousands of Israel."

NUMBERS 10:33–36

Answer

Now when the people complained, it displeased the LORD; for the LORD heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the fire of the LORD burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp. Then the people cried out to Moses, and when Moses prayed to the LORD, the fire was quenched.

NUMBERS 11:1–2

JOSHUA

Prayer: Joshua—That the sun stand still

Then Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel:

"Sun, stand still over Gibeon;

And Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon."

JOSHUA 10:12

Answer

So the sun stood still,

And the moon stopped,

Till the people had revenge

Upon their enemies.

Is this not written in the Book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day.

JOSHUA 10:13

SAMSON

Prayer: Samson prays for strength

Then Samson called to the LORD, saying, O LORD GOD, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!

JUDGES 16:28

Answer

And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left. Then Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines! And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.

JUDGES 16:29–30

GIDEON

Prayer: Gideon prays for a fleece

Then Gideon said to God, Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.

JUDGES 6:39

Answer

And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.

JUDGES 6:40

MANOAH

Prayer: Manoah prays for his child

God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the Angel of God came to the woman again as she was sitting in the field; but Manoah her husband was not with her.

JUDGES 13:9

Answer

It happened as the flame went up toward heaven from the altar—the Angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar! When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground. . . . So the woman bore a son and called his name Samson; and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him.

JUDGES 13:20, 24

HANNAH

Prayer: Hannah asks for Samuel

She was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the LORD and wept in anguish. Then she made a vow and said, O LORD of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head.

1 SAMUEL 1:10–11

Answer

So it came to pass in the process of time that Hannah conceived and bore a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked for him from the LORD.

1 SAMUEL 1:20

DAVID

Prayer: David kills Goliath

Then David said to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

1 SAMUEL 17:45

Answer

So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David.

1 SAMUEL 17:50

ELIJAH

Prayer: Elijah prays for fire

Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.

1 KINGS 18:37

Answer

Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench.

1 KINGS 18:38

ELISHA

Prayer: Elisha prays for Shunammite’s son

When Elisha came into the house, there was the child, lying dead on his bed. He went in therefore, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the LORD.

2 KINGS 4:32–33

Answer

He returned and walked back and forth in the house, and again went up and stretched himself out on him; then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.

2 KINGS 4:35

JABEZ

Prayer: Jabez prays for blessing

And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, "Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from