New Covenant Ministries & Fellowship

Prayers from Scripture for Believers

1. The Lord's Prayer
The "Our Father"
This is the prayer that our Lord, Jesus Christ, taught His followers,
when they said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray."
This prayer is considered the perfect prayer, as it includes every possible aspect of prayer:
adoration, confession, thanksgiving,supplication, etc.
(That is only one of the many "models" of prayer; the Lord's Prayer fits all the known prayer models.)
Here it is in both the traditional and the modern version:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
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 trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory. for ever and ever. Amen


Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your Kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours.
Now and for ever. Amen

The Lord's Prayer appears in the Bible in Matthew 6:10-14 and in Luke 11:2-4.
You can pray it exactly as it is, and be blessed (I often do), or use it as a model for your own prayers.

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2. The Tax Collector's Prayer -- A Prayer of Confession, for Mercy

This is from a very moving passage in Scripture.
Luke 18:10-14:

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself:

'God, I thank you that I am not like other men — robbers, evildoers, adulterers — or even like this tax collector. 
I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'

"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said,

'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'

"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

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I have often prayed this prayer, "The Tax Collector's Prayer."
It's comforting to me to simply throw myself at the feet of
my Lord and ask for mercy and forgiveness, and to know
that He is faithful to forgive!

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Paul's Prayer for Spiritual Wisdom
(Ephesians 1:15-23)

"For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you when I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in your growing knowledge of him,– since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened – so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the incomparable greatness of his power toward us who believe, as displayed in the exercise of his immense strength. This power he exercised in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms far above every rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And God put all things under Christ’s feet, and he gave him to the church as head over all things. Now the church is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all."

Here, Paul is praying for the spiritual wisdom of the church, 
and slips into a beautiful exposition of the Gospel.

Although Paul is praying here for other Saints, we should pray for wisdom daily. 

Solomon, the son of David and possibly the greatest King of Israel, 
was asked God, "Tell me what I should give you."
Solomon was a young king, an inexperienced king, and he knew it. 
He asked God to, "give your servant a discerning mind,
so he can make judicial decisions for your people and distinguish right from wrong. 
Otherwise no one is able to make judicial decisions for this great nation of yours."

When asked what he wanted from God, Solomon (wisely) asked for wisdom, to help him run the nation of Israel.
Solomon knew that he needed spiritual wisdom and discerning to make just decisions for the nation of Israel. 

It is a good practice to pray for wisdom, and to read from Scripture daily. 
There are so many places in Scripture from which to derive wisdom, but a good place to start is Proverbs.

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Prayers of Praise

There are so many prayers of praise in Scripture. 
One of my favorite things to pray is the doxologies at the end of some of the epistles. 
It's a great way to end a prayer, after confession, supplication and thanksgiving.
My favorite is Jude 1: 24-25

"Now to the one who is able to keep you from falling,
and to cause you to stand, rejoicing, 
without blemish before his glorious presence,
to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, 
be glory, majesty, power, and authority, 
before all time, and now, and for all eternity. Amen."

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There is an excellent lesson on prayer at St. Luke's, our mother church.


More to come!


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