18 Bible Verses About the Power of Prayer

James 5:16

“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

Reflection: James closes his letter with instructions for the sick: call the elders, who pray and anoint with oil, and “the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well” (5:15). His proof that such prayer works is Elijah, “a human being, even as we are,” who prayed that it would not rain and then prayed for rain again (5:17-18). The drought is told in 1 Kings 17-18, where Elijah bends to the ground on Carmel and sends his servant to look for a cloud seven times before the rain comes.

Mark 9:29

“He replied, ‘This kind can come out only by prayer.’”

Reflection: Jesus says this to his disciples indoors, after they had failed to drive a spirit out of a boy and he had done it himself. Earlier in the same scene the boy’s father cries, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (9:24). Some manuscripts add “and fasting” to the verse, and the King James Version follows them: “This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.”

2 Chronicles 7:14

“if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Reflection: God speaks these words to Solomon at night after the temple is dedicated, answering the prayer Solomon had offered there; 7:1 says fire came down from heaven when he finished praying. The promise is set against drought, locusts and plague (7:13), and the next verse ties it to that building: “my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.” Humbling, praying, seeking and turning are the four things the people must do, and hearing, forgiving and healing are God’s answer.

Psalm 34:17

“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.”

Reflection: The psalm’s heading places it after David pretended to be insane before Abimelek to escape him. Two verses earlier the psalmist says God’s “ears are attentive to their cry” (34:15), and the next verse extends the promise: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

Matthew 7:7-8

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Reflection: In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus follows the command to ask, seek and knock with a comparison: a father does not give his son a stone when he asks for bread, so “how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (7:11). Luke gives the same saying after a parable about a friend knocking at midnight, and ends it differently: the Father will “give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Luke 11:13).

Mark 11:24

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

Reflection: Jesus says this the morning after he cursed a fig tree, when Peter notices it has withered from the roots. The verse before speaks of telling a mountain to throw itself into the sea, and the verse after adds a condition: “when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them.” The saying opens with “Have faith in God” (11:22).

John 15:7

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

Reflection: The promise comes inside the image of the vine and the branches, spoken to the disciples on the night before the crucifixion. Its condition is remaining: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you.” The next verse speaks of the Father’s glory: “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit.”

James 1:5-6

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt.”

Reflection: James begins with wisdom, which God “gives generously to all without finding fault.” The warning follows at once: the one who doubts is “like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind” and “should not expect to receive anything from the Lord” (1:6-7). In verse 8 James calls that person double-minded, a word he uses again in 4:8.

1 John 5:14-15

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”

Reflection: John writes to believers so that they “may know that you have eternal life” (5:13), and this confidence in prayer follows from that. The condition is “according to his will.” The next verse applies it to one kind of request, praying for a brother or sister who sins, and John adds that there is a sin “that leads to death” for which he does not tell them to pray.

Romans 8:26

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”

Reflection: Paul places this after writing that creation and believers groan while they wait (8:22-23), and the Spirit’s groans join theirs. The next verse finishes the thought: the Spirit “intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”

2 Corinthians 12:9

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

Reflection: These are the words Paul received after he “pleaded with the Lord” three times to take away his thorn in the flesh (12:8). He does not say what the thorn was, only that it was given “to keep me from becoming conceited.” The request was refused, and the answer Paul records is the one quoted here, which leads him to say, “when I am weak, then I am strong” (12:10).

Jeremiah 29:12-13

“Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

Reflection: Jeremiah sent these words by letter to the exiles in Babylon, telling them to build houses, plant gardens and pray for the city where they lived (29:5-7). The promise to hear them comes after “seventy years are completed for Babylon” (29:10), and the verse after it joins their seeking to God’s promise to bring them home: “I will be found by you… and will bring you back from captivity.”

Psalm 145:18

“The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.”

Reflection: The verse is part of a psalm of praise headed “Of David.” The qualifier “in truth” limits who is meant, and the next verse says what nearness means in practice: “he hears their cry and saves them.”

Hebrews 4:16

“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Reflection: The passage opens with “Therefore” (4:14), and its ground is Jesus as high priest (4:14-15). He “has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin,” so he is able to empathize with weakness, and the writer tells the readers to approach the throne of grace with confidence because of him.

Matthew 6:6

“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

Reflection: Jesus contrasts this with the hypocrites who pray on street corners to be seen (6:5) and with the pagans who “think they will be heard because of their many words” (6:7). He adds that “your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (6:8), and the Lord’s Prayer follows in 6:9-13.

Philippians 4:6-7

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Reflection: Paul wrote Philippians in chains (1:13). The line just before this one reads “The Lord is near” (4:5), and the command sets prayer, petition and thanksgiving against anxiety “in every situation.” What the passage promises in return is peace that guards hearts and minds; it does not say the requests will be granted.

Psalm 55:22

“Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.”

Reflection: David writes of being betrayed by a close companion whose “talk is smooth as butter, yet war is in his heart” (55:21). A few verses earlier he describes his own practice: “Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice” (55:17).

Ephesians 6:18

“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”

Reflection: The verse follows the list of the armour of God, which ends with “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (6:17). Paul then asks for prayer for himself, “that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains” (6:19-20).