Allowing Scripture to shape your prayers can be a powerful way to abide in the True Vine.
Prayers by Subject
Praying through the Lens of Scripture
Prayers on Abiding
John 15:4-5 — Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Jesus, you are the vine. I am merely a branch. You are the source of life. I cannot live without you. Teach me to abide in you, to remain in you, to be constantly attached to you. You are the source of fruit. I cannot produce one good thing apart from you. Teach me to abide in you. Fill me with the nutrients I need to bear your fruit. Produce within me love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness. Help me to be self-controlled under the authority of your Spirit. Help me. I need you.
John 15:9-11 — As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
Jesus, thank you for loving me in the same way and to the same measure as God, the Father, has loved you! I am undeserving of such favor. Thank you for loving me in spite of that, based on your unchanging character. I want to abide in you, but I have not kept your commandments. My heart is prone to wander. My self-control is ineffective and weak. Give me the desire, the strength, and the will power to be obedient. Expand the joy you’ve given within me. Fill it up to the utter fullness. May I be attached to you in obedience and overflowing with your joy. Help me. I need you.
John 15:12-14 — This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.
Jesus, how can you call me your friend? Why would you lay down your life for me? How can I fathom the depth of your love? You, truly, are worthy of all praise! Thank you for your sacrifice on the cross. Thank you for your triumphant resurrection. Help me to embody your love for me and pour it out to my brothers and sisters today. Show me how I can lay down my life for your people today as a demonstration of your extravagant love.
Prayers by Subject
Prayers on the Spirit and the Flesh
Galatians 5:16-18 — For freedom Christ has set us free… walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Father, Son, and Spirit God, thank you for setting us free! Jesus, thank you for the heavy price you paid for that freedom. Spirit, thank you for residing within us. Give us the desire to walk with you today. Strengthen us to take each step following in the footsteps of Jesus. We recognize that our fleshly desires, our old habits and patterns, are against you and your life-giving ways. Help us to reject what is not of you even when it seems more natural, easy, and comfortable. Don’t lead us into the great time of trial, but deliver us from the evil one, the deceiver, and our flesh. Lead us to abide in you today.
Galatians 5:22-26 — But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
Father, Son, and Spirit God, what beautiful fruit you produce! Help us to value that fruit. Help us to desire it. Show us how you would have us abide in you today so that your fruit would grow within us and flow out of us. Transform our hearts into hearts that naturally reflect your character so that our actions authentically represent you. We belong to you. Thank you for claiming us. Help us to re-crucify our flesh. Give us the strength to say no to its passions and desires. Help us live by your Spirit, Jesus. Empower us to keep in step with him today.
Galatians 6:7-10 — Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
Father, Son, and Spirit God, what a sobering truth you have revealed to us in this passage. We confess that we have sowed to our flesh and have reaped corruption within our bodies, our minds, and our community. Forgive us! Help us sow to your Spirit today. Teach us to abide in you. Allow us to reap the first fruits of the eternal life you have stored up for us in the heavenly realms. We admit that we have grown weary of doing good. Strengthen us! Give us the stamina we need flowing from your power to do what is good. Show us how to love our fellow adopted brothers and sisters today.
Prayers by Subject
The Lord Is
Psalm 145:3, 5-7 — Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable… On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate. They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness. They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
LORD, you are brilliant, glorious, and worthy of all praise! Spirit of God, I ask that you would bring to mind your unfathomable greatness. Allow the splendor of your majesty, your wonderful works, and awesome deeds to stir in my heart. Remind me of who you are throughout the day. Draw me near to you. Help me abide. May your goodness and love pour out of me as an overflow of the intimacy you are cultivating within. Allow people to see the fruit you’re producing and be drawn near to you. I ask these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Psalm 145:8-9 — The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.
Yes, LORD, I believe and declare that you are gracious and merciful. I am a product of that unmerited favor. Thank you for calling me your own, for adopting me into your family! Thank you that I am not a recipient of your just anger. Thank you that instead you are calling to me and drawing me near. Help me to experience that closeness right now. Show me how to cultivate deeper intimacy with you right now. I need you.
Psalm 145:13-16 — [The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.] The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
Father, thank you that you are faithful—that your word is trustworthy. Thank you that you are kind—gracious in all that you do. Thank for upholding me when I’ve fallen. Thank you for raising me up when I’ve been brought low. Fix my eyes on Jesus. Show me how to look to you for my provision. Help me believe that you will satisfy every original desire you hardwired into my DNA. You are my portion and my cup. Draw me closer to you right now. Help me to abide in you.
Psalm 145:17-20 — The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them. The Lord preserves all who love him
Father, Son, and Spirit God, I’m calling on you right now in Spirit and in truth—the best that I can. Be near to me. Help me to feel your presence. Lord, I want to fear you rightly. Give me the appropriate perspective of you. Help me to respect you, your will, and your way. Teach me to abide in your love through willing obedience to your commands. Help me, in the name of Jesus.
Prayers by Subject
I Am not My Sin
Romans 8:1-4 — There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Heavenly Father, how can we begin to fully comprehend much less thank you for this incredible gift? Thank you that you have justly condemned sin. Thank you that you don’t simply sweep evil under the rug. And, thank you that you made a way for us who have chosen sin to escape condemnation. Jesus, thank you for paying the steep price for our freedom. Why would you do that for us? Thank you that somehow, by your unbelievable grace, the righteous requirement of the law has been filled in us! How is this our reality? Help us to deny the flesh and walk according to your Holy Spirit today. Thank you! We need you!
Romans 8:5-7 — For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Father, thank you for your brilliant, gracious plan! Jesus, thank you for giving yourself up so that we might be raised higher than our flesh could reach. Spirit, thank you that you are with us, filling us, guiding us. God, set us free from our habitual tendency to set our minds on the things of the flesh. Help us instead to set our minds on the Spirit. God, we don’t want to be hostile toward you—help us! We want to embrace you and surrender to you. We want to please you. We know in and of ourselves we cannot. We trust in the blood of Jesus. Empower us to walk in his footsteps intimately connected to the Spirit, choosing life today.
Romans 8:9-11 — You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Father, what an incredible reality to behold—I am not in the flesh but in the Spirit! Praise Jesus! Spirit, thank you for dwelling within me. Thank you that you are life inside me. Thank you that I can have confidence in the future life you will give to my mortal body. Help me to fix my eyes on Jesus and abide in you as you abide in me today.
Prayers by Subject
Indwelling Spirit
Jeremiah 31:31-34 — Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah… I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Heavenly Father, what a brilliant plan and incredible reality that you have brought into existence! Thank you for this new covenant that we have inherited through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, our Lord. Thank you that you have put your life-giving law within us, a people who don’t deserve it! Thank you that you have written it on our hearts, that you have made it a part of us. Thank you that you have given us the ability to actually know you, the Initiator of life, the God who spoke the universe into existence, who breathed your sustaining breath into our bodies. Thank you that we can all know you regardless of our popularity, power, wealth, intelligence, or talent. Help us to know you today in a deep and intimate way. Attach our hearts to you. Help us to abide.
Ezekiel 36:22, 25–27 — Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God… I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Lord God, thank you for the blood of Jesus, the clean water you have washed us with purifying our souls. Thank you for cleansing us from our idols—the empty things we have filled ourselves with, the broken ways we have worshiped. O how we have needed a brand new heart—one untainted by this world, one not bent away from you. Thank you for the bountiful provision of your Holy Spirit within us. Teach us to sow to your Spirit today. Teach us to abide in your love through obedience to your life-giving way. We need you!
John 14:15-17, 26 — [Jesus said to his disciples,] “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you… he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
God of love, Father of mercies, may your love for us continue to ignite our love for you and attachment to you. And, may that love and attachment fuel our obedience to your life-giving way. Thank you for the priceless gift of your Spirit, the Spirit of truth, residing in us helping us into adherence to the truth. Spirit, thank you for dwelling in us and being with us even now. We ask that you would teach us all things and remind us of all that Jesus said. Help us to abide in you. Produce your fruit within us and help it to overflow into the world spreading your kingdom today.
John 16:7–8 — [Jesus said to his disciples,] “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment”
Jesus, what a shocking thing to say! How could you leaving ever be to our advantage? The gift of your Spirit must be of such incomprehensible, surpassing worth! Thank you! Spirit, we ask that you would convict us of sin that we may confidently approach the Father’s throne of grace to confess and find healing. We ask that you would reveal righteousness to us that we may embrace what is good. Remind us of God’s just judgment of sin and at the same time help us to remember that Jesus didn’t come into the world to condemn it, but so that we might be saved through his life, death, and resurrection. Fill us today. Lead us today. Empower us today. We need you!
Prayers by Subject
Fellowship with God
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 — Hear, O Israel: YHWH our God, YHWH is one. You shall love YHWH your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Father, Son, and Spirit God, you are one! You exist in perfect love and absolute unity. Pour that love into our hearts today. Ignite our love for you. Help us to display it in our emotions, our spirit, our bodies, our minds, out to our community. Inspire us to meditate on your Word today. May it be such an integral part of our lives that it would go with us as we sit, walk, and drive. Help it to shape our worldview. May it infiltrate every conversation we have. Help us to abide in you today through meditating on your Word.
1 John 1:5-7 — This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
God of light who spoke your light into the darkness and brought forth our world, we praise your name! We ask that you would enlighten our minds revealing your abiding presence. Illuminate every shadow, crack, and crevice in our hearts where darkness hides. Gently expose what is hidden. Help us walk with you today in the radiance of your light that we may bask in its life-giving warmth.
1 John 1:8-9 — If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
God of righteousness, justice, and truth, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole hearts. We have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. For the sake of your son, Jesus, have mercy on us and forgive us that we may delight in your will and walk in your way to the glory of your name. We believe you are faithful, that you have forgiven us and that you will continue to cleanse us from unrighteousness. Thank you!
Prayers by Subject
The Wide Path
Psalm 1:1-3 — Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.
Heavenly Father, our good Shepherd, we ask that you would protect us from the folly of sin and the way of rebellion leading to death. Help us not walk with the wicked, stand with sinners, or sit and join in with mockers. Instead, help us to delight in your life-giving law. Teach us to enjoy meditating on your words. Help us to abide with you. Make us like a sturdy tree expanding upwards worshiping your name. Help our roots extend down into the rich soil soaking up the water of life from the stream of your love. Spirit, produce your fruit on our branches. May we be beacon of hope feeding the nations with your nutrients.
Deuteronomy 30:19–20 — I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days
O God, Source of Life, captivate my gaze today. Stir my affections for you. Empower me to love you with ALL my heart, soul, strength, and mind. Help me believe that Jesus is THE way, THE truth, and THE life!
Spirit of God, show me a single way that I can choose life today. What’s one way I have the margin to embrace Jesus’ way? Motivate my will to choose it, and give me the energy to follow through. I ask this in the name of Jesus believing it to be in line with your will.
John 10:10 — The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Jesus, Word made flesh, Voice of life, fix my eyes on you. Remind my heart that you authored my faith and will bring it into maturity. Help me believe that your desire is abundant life for me. Inspire me to trust that only your way will lead to fullness of joy, incomprehensible peace, abounding hope, and soul-level rest.
Spirit of Jesus, disclose to me one choice I can make that will lead me into life today. Give me the grace to hear and receive it, and the fortitude to walk into it. I ask this in the name of Jesus believing it to be in line with your will.
Psalm 16:11 — You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Spirit of God, open my eyes to behold, Jesus in all his fullness. Beckon me into his presence. Show me how to bask in his light. Help me believe that you, God, are my treasure, and that your way leads to life abundant—full and free.
Reveal to me one way, just one way, that I can choose life today. Then give me the courage to make that decision and the strength to walk it as you draw me down that path of life to yourself. I ask this in the name of Jesus believing it to be in line with your will.
Prayers by Subject
Path of Life
Deuteronomy 30:19–20 — I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, 20 loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days
Father, God of Life, we acknowledge that you have shown us the way of life, the path to blessing. We recognize that you are life itself. You are our good inheritance.
However, in spite of that understanding which you have graciously given us we have forsaken your path and chosen death. We confess that our life-draining choices stem from an underlying mis-belief. We don’t fully believe that you are good, that you love us, and that you desire good for us. For the sake of your Son, our Lord and Savior—Jesus—have mercy on us and forgives us.
Spirit of God, we ask that you would make know to us one way we are choosing death that we are unaware of. Give us the courage to repent and embrace your way of life. We ask this in the name of Jesus believing it to be in line with your will.
Matthew 7:24–27 (ESV): Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
Jesus, Son of the living God, we echo the words of Peter declaring that, “you have the words of life!” Help us believe it at the core of our being. Teach us to build our lives upon your truth. Tune our ears to hear and obey.
Spirit of God, we ask that you would reveal one area where our foundation is faulty. Is there a belief in our hearts we need you to correct? Is there a truth we are misunderstanding? Have we kept the main thing the main thing? Forgive us where we have fallen short. Change us from the inside out. Make our foundation sturdy. We ask this in the name of Jesus believing it to be in line with your will.
Hebrews 12:1–2 — Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus, King of kings, Lord of lords, seated on your throne, may your name be high and exalted. Teach us to bend our hearts in humble adoration remembering your generous sacrifice on our behalf.
Spirit, we ask that you would bring to mind the things that are weighing us down. What’s making it more difficult to follow you? Where are we devoting our attention to something or someone that is shaping us in an unhealthy way? What are we giving too much time to that doesn’t leave us any margin to pursue you? Help us to clearly see the idols in our priorities.
We acknowledge our weakness. Empower us to make more life giving choices. We ask this in the name of Jesus believing it to be in line with your will.
Prayers by Subject
The Narrow Path
Matthew 7:13–14 — Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Father, Creator of life, give us the humility to trust in your way. Jesus, Light of the world, illuminate for us the narrow gate. Spirit, divine Guide, lead us down the narrow path. Today, by your grace, may we be among the few who actually walk with you into what is good, beautiful, and life-giving. We ask this in the name of Jesus believing it to be in line with your will.
Psalm 1:1-3 — Blessed is the one who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but instead delights in the law of the Lord, and meditates on God’s law day and night. This person is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither, and prospers in all that he or she does.
Father, Son, and Spirit God may we be the blessed ones today. Protect us from our broken fascination with the bewitching things that pull us toward destruction. Deafen our ears to the foolish counsel of those who are far from you. Lead us away from the sinful path.
Instill in our minds your life-giving truth. Help us to consistently contemplate your Scriptures. May they be in our hearts, on our minds, and flowing from our lips. And give us the strength to follow the wisdom that leads to life everlasting. We ask this in the name of Jesus believing it to be in line with your will.
Proverbs 3:5-8 (ESV): Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.
YHWH, God of faithfulness and loyal love, help our hearts trust in your character. Father, God of wisdom and perfect understanding, help our minds trust in your discernment. Jesus, Word made flesh Wisdom in human form, help us remember your example and walk in your way. Spirit of Discernment, help us recognize your voice, be sensitive to your leading, and obedient to your direction. Make our paths straight today. Lead us into life today. Draw us near to you today. We ask this in the name of Jesus believing it to be in line with your will.
Colossians 3:12–14 — Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
YHWH, YHWH, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, instill in us your disposition toward humanity. Help us believe that life is found in walking in the servant-hearted footsteps of Jesus. Spirit, produce within us the fruit of love—sacrificially giving ourselves for the good of our brothers and sisters. Help us to release the bonds of bitterness embrace the freedom of forgiveness. Keep our eyes fixed on the One who paid the ultimate price so that we might be forgiven our unplayable debt.
Lead us to embody our high call of being your hands and feet today. Give us creativity to think of unique, practical ways of demonstrating your kindness toward our community of faith. When people walk through the doors of my house or our church may they experience your life giving kingdom tangibly through us. We ask this in the name of Jesus believing it to be in line with your will.