What are you facing?

⁶Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

⁷and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

The setting. Paul wrote this from prison to a church he loved in Philippi. The invitation to pray about everything comes in a passage about rejoicing, gentleness and thinking on what is good.

⁶Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,

⁷casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

The setting. Peter wrote to Christians scattered across what is now Turkey, who were under pressure for their faith. Handing your cares to God comes paired with humility before Him.

In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul.

The setting. Psalm 94 is a cry for justice against people who abuse their power. In the middle of it the writer admits a crowd of anxious thoughts, and finds comfort in God.

¹⁷The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears, And delivers them out of all their troubles.

¹⁸The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit.

The setting. A song of David from a time when he was on the run for his life. It says the LORD is near to the broken-hearted, without asking the heart to mend first.

³³Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.

³⁴And He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.”

³⁵Jesus wept.

³⁶Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”

The setting. Jesus came to the grave of His friend Lazarus knowing He would raise him. He still wept with the people mourning.

¹³But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.

¹⁴For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

The setting. Paul wrote to a young church troubled about believers who had died. He did not tell them to stop grieving. He told them to grieve with hope.

²In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; My hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing; My soul refused to be comforted.

³I remembered God, and was troubled; I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah

⁴You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

The setting. Asaph could not sleep and could not speak. The psalm keeps his complaint, then turns slowly as he remembers what God has done.

³He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.

⁴Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The setting. A song for pilgrims on the long road up to Jerusalem. The One watching over them never dozes, so they could rest.

I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; For You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

The setting. David ends a prayer from a hard time by lying down to sleep. His peace rests on God's keeping, not on the trouble being over.

⁵I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, And in His word I do hope.

⁶My soul waits for the Lord More than those who watch for the morning— Yes, more than those who watch for the morning.

The setting. A pilgrim song that begins in the depths. The writer waits like a watchman on the city wall, sure the morning will come and still awake through the dark.

¹³I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living.

¹⁴Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!

The setting. David admits he would have lost heart without hope. The psalm ends with a charge to wait and take courage.

²⁵The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him.

²⁶It is good that one should hope and wait quietly For the salvation of the LORD.

The setting. Written after Babylon destroyed Jerusalem. This hope and quiet waiting are spoken from among the ruins.

²O LORD, how long shall I cry, And You will not hear? Even cry out to You, “Violence!” And You will not save.

³Why do You show me iniquity, And cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me; There is strife, and contention arises.

The setting. The prophet Habakkuk saw violence and injustice in Judah and asked God why He was not acting. God answered him.

¹My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?

²O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent.

The setting. A psalm of David that begins with a cry of abandonment. Jesus prayed its first line from the cross.

¹⁷Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls—

¹⁸Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

The setting. The end of Habakkuk's book. Nothing around him has changed, but he has taken his complaint to God and chosen to rejoice in Him.

¹⁶Turn Yourself to me, and have mercy on me, For I am desolate and afflicted.

¹⁷The troubles of my heart have enlarged; Bring me out of my distresses!

The setting. A prayer of David, written as an acrostic on the Hebrew alphabet. In the middle of its careful order he calls himself desolate.

¹⁶At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them.

¹⁷But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.

The setting. Paul, in prison near the end of his life, writes that everyone deserted him and the Lord stood with him. In the same passage he asks his friends to come.

⁵A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy habitation.

⁶God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity; But the rebellious dwell in a dry land.

The setting. A song of praise to God the rescuer. Among His acts it names setting the solitary in families.

¹Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions.

²Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin.

³For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me.

⁴Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight— That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.

The setting. David's prayer after the prophet Nathan confronted him over Bathsheba. He names what he did and appeals to God's mercy.

⁸If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

⁹If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The setting. John wrote to churches he cared for. The promise of forgiveness rests on God being faithful and just, not on how well you word your prayer.

³When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long.

⁴For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah

⁵I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

The setting. David describes how keeping quiet wore him down, and the relief when he finally confessed.

⁵If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

⁶But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

The setting. James wrote to Christians going through trials. God gives wisdom generously and does not scold you for asking.

⁵Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;

⁶In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

The setting. A father's teaching to his son about a whole life of trust. It speaks of the direction of a life more than a yes or no on one choice.

⁴Show me Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths.

⁵Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day.

The setting. David asks to be taught God's ways. Much of God's guidance comes through learning who He is.

⁹For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

¹⁰that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

The setting. Paul prays for a church, many of whom had never met him. These are requests you can make for anyone.

¹⁶that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,

¹⁷that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

¹⁸may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—

¹⁹to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

The setting. Paul prays for inner strength and a deep knowledge of Christ's love. A good prayer when you do not know what someone needs.

“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.

The setting. From the story Jesus told of a son who left home. The father saw him while he was still far off, because he had been watching the road.

²Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am weak; O LORD, heal me, for my bones are troubled.

³My soul also is greatly troubled; But You, O LORD—how long?

The setting. David asks God directly for healing, and asks how long. Plain requests for healing run all through Scripture.

¹³Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.

¹⁴Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

¹⁵And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

The setting. James tells the sick to ask their church's elders to pray over them. Christians practise the anointing with oil in different ways.

⁷And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.

⁸Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.

⁹And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

The setting. Paul asked three times for his thorn in the flesh to be taken away. The answer was grace, and strength in weakness.

²⁸Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

²⁹Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

³⁰For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

The setting. Jesus' invitation to people weighed down. A yoke was the frame that harnessed working animals, and He calls His easy.

⁴But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!”

⁵Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.”

⁶Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again.

⁷And the angel of the LORD came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.”

⁸So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.

The setting. Elijah collapsed in the wilderness and asked to die. God's first answer was sleep and food, twice, before any words about what came next.

¹Hear my cry, O God; Attend to my prayer.

²From the end of the earth I will cry to You, When my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

The setting. David prays from far away with his heart overwhelmed, asking to be led to a rock higher than himself.

Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

The setting. Paul wrote to the churches in Rome about suffering and hope. He admits believers do not always know what to pray, and says the Spirit helps.

¹How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?

²How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

The setting. David's prayer begins with four questions of “how long”. Honest complaint is still prayer.

⁹In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

¹⁰Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.

¹¹Give us this day our daily bread.

¹²And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.

¹³And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

The setting. Jesus gave this prayer just after warning against piling up words. You can pray it one line at a time.