Bible verses about prayer

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful

Paul, writing from custody. The word behind devote is the same one Luke uses for the first believers who devoted themselves to prayer in Acts 2, and it means to stay at something.

If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.

Jesus, on the morning after the fig tree withered, in the last week before His death. The promise is sweeping, and He gives it to the disciples who would soon need it most.

The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears; He delivers them from all their troubles.

David, from a psalm he wrote after escaping by pretending to be mad. The cry comes first and the hearing follows, which is the order the whole Bible keeps.

Call to Me, and I will answer and show you great and unsearchable things you do not know.

Spoken to Jeremiah while he was confined in the courtyard of the guard during the siege of Jerusalem. A promise of unsearchable things, given to a man who could not leave the yard.

The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call out to Him in truth.

David, in an acrostic psalm of praise that walks through the alphabet. Near is the whole point; the only qualifier is in truth, which rules out performance.

In the morning, O LORD, You hear my voice; at daybreak I lay my plea before You and wait in expectation.

A morning prayer of David. Wait in expectation is the posture of a watchman looking for what he is sure will come, and it is a good line to say before the day begins.

If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Jesus, on the night before His death, in the middle of the vine and branches. The condition comes before the promise: remaining in Him and His words shapes what we ask for.

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

The unnamed writer of Hebrews, just after describing Jesus as a high priest who understands weakness. That is why the throne is called a throne of grace and why the approach is confident.

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.

James, traditionally the brother of Jesus, and in the next verse his example of a righteous man is Elijah, who was a person just like us. The prayer that prevails is ordinary prayer.

But when you pray, go into your inner room, shut your door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

From the Sermon on the Mount, a few lines before the Lord's Prayer. The inner room was the storeroom, the one room in a house with a door, and the point is prayer without an audience.

Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

From Jeremiah's letter to exiles in Babylon, the lines right after the famous promise of plans to prosper you. The seventy years would be long, and God says He will listen the whole time.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.

Paul, honest about the weakness. When you do not know how to pray, this verse says that not knowing is not the end of the prayer; the Spirit takes it from there.

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

From the Sermon on the Mount. The three verbs are ongoing in the Greek, keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking, and the second verse repeats the promise so that it cannot be missed.

And this is the confidence that we have before Him: If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we already possess what we have asked of Him.

John, near the end of his first letter, writing as an old man to people he calls little children. The confidence is anchored in according to His will, which is what makes it confidence rather than wishful thinking.