Prayers for Victory: Before a Contest and in Life’s Long Battles



  • Short prayers cover a game or race, a contest or audition, an exam, a team, a loss, a long struggle, temptation, illness, favor at work and thanks after a win.
  • The 1928 Book of Common Prayer’s Litany asks God “to strengthen such as do stand” and “to beat down Satan under our feet,” and calls God “the only giver of all victory.”
  • The Orthodox hymn of the Cross, “O Lord, save thy people, and bless thine inheritance,” once asked victory for the emperor; the Orthodox Church in America now applies it to spiritual adversaries.
  • St. George, called “the Victorious” in Orthodox services, is documented only as a martyr at Lydda; the dragon story dates from the twelfth or thirteenth century.
  • Jehoshaphat was told “the battle is not yours, but God’s” (2 Chronicles 20:15), and Paul calls believers “more than conquerors” in the middle of tribulation (Romans 8:37).

“Lord, go ahead of me into this. Give me strength, a clear head and courage, and give me the victory if it is your will. Win or lose, keep me yours. Amen.” A prayer that short fits a final, an exam, a court date or a long illness. Christians ask God for victory because the New Testament names him as its giver: “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).…

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