CollegePrayer.org Key Verses on Prayer

Verses on Prayer

Overwhelmed? Tell God.

Many people have cried out to God in a panic as a last resort. Jonah and Hezekiah both were overwhelmed. Both struggled with their situations and asked for a change. God answered their cry. Will God answer you? Do you know what you need?

Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; steadfastly maintaining the habit of prayer.
Romans 12:12

green landscape at night

Let this be how you pray: Our Heavenly Father may your name be honored. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. Matt 6:9-13

Case Study: A depressed Jonah has run away from God's call and tries to kill himself by throwing himself overboard. God intervened and Jonah ends up as a giant sea beast's lunch.

Jonah prays: "When my soul was overwhelmed within me, I remembered the LORD: and my prayer reached you in your holy temple."

God's response: And now at the Lord's bidding, the sea beast cast forth Jonah high and dry on the beach. The moral of the story: don't run away from what God wants to do with your life. Jonah 2:7-10

Case Study: The prophet Isaiah informs Hezekiah that he has a terminal illness and Hezekiah reacts in despair.

Hezekiah's prayer: "I beseech you O LORD, remember now how I have walked before you with a perfect heart, and have done that which was good in your sight". and Hezekiah wept sore.

God's response: The LORD tells Isaiah to tell Hezekiah: "Thus says Jehovah, The God of David your father, I have listened to your prayer, I have seen your tears. Behold me! I will heal you: on the third day you shall go up to the Temple of Yahweh. And I will add 15 more years to your life." II Kings 20:1-5


Keep on praying for us for we are persuaded that we have an honorable conscience here in all things willing to live honestly. Heb 13:18

And when you pray, you are not to behave as the play actors do, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Believe me, they have their reward.

But when one of you prays, go into a room by yourself, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father privately and your Father who sees in secret, shall reward you openly. But when you pray, you must not keep on repeating set phrases as the heathen do: for they think they will be heard in accordance with the length of their prayers. Do not copy them for your Father knows what things you have need of, before you ask Him. Matt 6:4-8