What to pray for if you have nothing in mind – 10 suggested items

Christians are called to live a prayerful life (Luke 18:1, Colossians 2:4, 1 Thessalonians 5:17). Sometimes when you set out to pray, you run short of words on what to say to God in prayer. The Bible gives us what to pray for and Jesus Christ taught us how to pray. I will suggest some of the things you can pray for whenever you come to God in prayer. Before I go on to give relevant ideas to pray for, I will go through a number of thoughts given to Christians from the Bible concerning prayer.

Mathew 7:11 – ask for good gifts from God. Anything you wish for is a gift that God can provide (Philippians 4:6). Do not pray with wrong motives because when you do, you will not receive (James 4:3). This is not to say you may not receive elsewhere, but you can receive from the devil and hardly realise it. I wrote two articles that support this thought ‘It hurts when the devil provides’ and ‘The devil or Satan is real’. Lastly, 1 Timothy 2:1 – 2 urges Christians to pray everyone.

Suggested prayer items

1. We know that God’s business is winning souls and therefore I would prioritise praying for sinners to receive the grace of salvation.
2. Pray for Christians to live up to God’s standard with total dependence on God. Pray that they do not misinterpret the Bible. Let Christian hear the Word of God through the Bible and Jesus secured dreams and visions.
3. Pray for non-Christians to be free from the devil’s grip. Many may not realise that drinking alcohol, fighting, vulgar language, immodest dressing, prayerlessness, pride, theft, lies, irresponsibility, sexual immorality, homosexuality, self-righteousness, and many other things that people do is not acceptable to God.
4. Pray for terrorists to have an encounter with God so that they may change their ways.
5. Pray for world leaders and politicians, which I believe are responsible for the laws and policies that govern the world, to be governed by God’s word in whatever they decide and do.
6. Preachers often reason the word and preach what seems reasonable. Normally, they would do this when they feel they have prayed but did not receive an answer. They should wait for the answer from God.
7. Pray for your own soul to be saved.
8. Pray for your immediate and extended family.
9. Pray for the sick to receive God’s mercy of healing. It all happens in the name of Jesus.
10. Pray for people that are following other religions. This includes Muslims, Buddhists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Shembes, etc. They won’t always be willing to hear your side of Christianity but the Holy Spirit can work out something in their hearts. You have no power over their conviction but the Holy Spirit does. These are people that believe they are speaking to God each time they pray but they are speaking to the devil.

The name Jesus Christ should be an opening and closing name in your prayer. If you ignore the name Jesus, you will get responses but those responses will be from elsewhere.  Jesus Christ our example prayer to God and paved the way for us.