Bible verses for prayer and faith show how closely the two belong together: we pray because we believe God hears, and our faith grows as we see Him answer. Jesus taught His disciples to ask, seek, and knock, and to believe while they prayed. These verses also make room for honest struggle, like the father who cried, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
Mark 11:24 (KJV)
Jesus tells His disciples to believe they receive what they ask for when they pray.
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Hebrews 11:6 (KJV)
Coming to God in prayer starts with believing that He exists and rewards those who seek Him.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
James 1:5-6 (KJV)
Ask God for wisdom, James says, but ask in faith without wavering.
And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
Matthew 21:22 (KJV)
Believing prayer is tied here to receiving whatever we ask of God.
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7 (KJV)
Instead of worrying, we bring everything to God with thanksgiving and receive His peace.
Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
Mark 9:23-24 (KJV)
A struggling father’s honest cry, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief, is a prayer anyone can pray.
And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
Luke 17:5-6 (KJV)
When the apostles asked for more faith, Jesus pointed to the power of faith as small as a mustard seed.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16 (KJV)
Faith lets us come boldly to the throne of grace to find help when we need it.
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
1 John 5:14-15 (KJV)
Confidence in prayer rests on asking according to God’s will, knowing He hears us.
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Romans 10:17 (KJV)
Faith grows by hearing the word of God, which is why praying Scripture strengthens belief.
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
Matthew 7:7-8 (KJV)
Jesus encourages us to keep asking, seeking and knocking, promising that the door will be opened.
And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
Luke 18:1 (KJV)
This parable was told so that people would always pray and not lose heart.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1 (KJV)
Faith is described as the substance of things hoped for and evidence of things not seen.
But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
Jude 1:20-21 (KJV)
Believers build themselves up in their most holy faith by praying in the Holy Ghost.
(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
2 Corinthians 5:7 (KJV)
We walk by faith, not by sight, which is also how we keep praying before answers come.
And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Luke 22:31-32 (KJV)
Jesus prayed for Peter that his faith would not fail, showing His care for our faith.
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
Ephesians 6:16-18 (KJV)
The shield of faith stands beside a call to pray always with all prayer and supplication.
Many believers find it easier to pray when they have Scripture in front of them. Start with Hebrews 4:16 and come boldly, knowing the throne you approach is a throne of grace. Then choose a promise, such as Matthew 7:7-8, and speak your request plainly. You do not need polished words; you need a willing heart that trusts God is listening.
When faith feels small, pray Mark 9:24 word for word. Jesus did not turn that father away, and He will not turn you away either. Luke 17:6 reminds us that even faith as small as a mustard seed matters, because its strength rests in the God it trusts, not in how strong we feel.
Keep praying even when answers take time. Luke 18:1 says we ought always to pray and not to faint. A simple prayer journal, listing requests and dates, can help you notice God’s faithfulness. Pair this with regular Bible reading, since Romans 10:17 teaches that faith comes by hearing the word of God.
James 1:6 works well prayed by naming your specific request, asking for the faith to believe as you pray it, not only the right words.
Two nearby collections worth opening next are Bible Verses About Seeking God and Bible Verses About Children.
Quotations follow the King James Version of 1611, now in the public domain. To read any verse within its full chapter, try Blue Letter Bible.
If you want to keep reading, Bible Verses For Hope and Healing and Bible Verses For Peace in Difficult Times sit close to this topic.
For a related angle, see Bible Verses For Marriage or Bible Verses For Obedience.
Bible Verses For Money and Bible Verses For Finding Peace are good companions to this page.
Bible Verses For Prayer and Healing and Bible Verses About Prayer and Healing pick up threads that run through these verses.
Bible Gateway makes it easy to compare a verse across several English translations.
Bible Hub collects commentary on every verse if you want to study one more closely.
Return to this verse as you continue praying in faith for your specific request.
These verses were never meant to sit on a page as decoration \u2014 they’re meant to shape how you actually respond the next time it’s easier to talk about prayer than to actually sit down and pray.
You don’t need polished or formal language for it \u2014 an honest, plainly worded sentence is enough, something as simple as telling God directly for the discipline to actually pray, not just think about praying.
After three and a half years without rain, Elijah went to the top of Mount Carmel, bowed with his face between his knees, and sent his servant to look toward the sea seven times before a small cloud finally appeared (1 Kings 18:41-45). James later notes that Elijah was a man with feelings like ours, yet his fervent prayer accomplished much (James 5:17-18).
These accounts point to Elijah because his persistence did not waver even after six discouraging reports of an empty sky. His faith showed itself in refusing to stop praying before the answer became visible.
Jesus told a parable about a widow who kept coming to an uncaring judge demanding justice against her adversary until he finally granted her request just to stop her from wearing him out (Luke 18:1-8). Jesus explained that He told this story so people would always pray and never lose heart.
Her prayer and faith were expressed through sheer persistence rather than eloquence or standing. Scripture includes this parable because it contrasts an unjust judge’s reluctant response with how much more readily God, who is good, answers those who keep asking.
Described simply as more honorable than his brothers, Jabez prayed a short, specific request that God would bless him indeed, enlarge his territory, keep His hand with him, and keep him from evil, and Scripture records plainly that God granted what he requested (1 Chronicles 4:9-10). His name, meaning sorrow, did not stop him from asking boldly for good things.
Scripture includes Jabez because his prayer was specific and unashamed rather than vague or overly cautious. He trusted God enough to name exactly what he wanted, and he received it.
Standing before King Artaxerxes with an obviously troubled face, Nehemiah was suddenly asked what he wanted, and Scripture records that he prayed to the God of heaven in that same instant before answering the king’s question (Nehemiah 2:1-5). There was no time for a long, prepared prayer, only a quick, silent turning to God under real pressure.
His prayer and faith fit into a single breath between the king’s question and his own answer. Bible Verses For Prayer and Faith include Nehemiah because they show that meaningful prayer does not always require time or privacy, only a heart already inclined to turn to God quickly.
Told plainly by the prophet Isaiah to set his house in order because he would die, King Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and wept, reminding God of his wholehearted service, before Isaiah was sent back with an added fifteen years and a sign of the sun’s shadow moving backward (2 Kings 20:1-11). His prayer changed the very message he had just received.
Hezekiah’s prayer and faith were raw and immediate, offered before he had time to compose himself. Scripture includes his account because it shows prayer taken seriously even after what looked like a final, settled word.
Weeping bitterly over years of childlessness, Hannah prayed so silently at the temple, with only her lips moving, that the priest Eli assumed she was drunk and rebuked her before she explained she had been pouring out her soul in sorrow and grief (1 Samuel 1:10-16). She left afterward with a peace that came before any visible answer had arrived.
Hannah’s prayer and faith looked unusual enough to be misread by a religious leader watching her closely. Scripture includes her account because deep, wordless prayer can be entirely genuine even when it looks strange to people observing from the outside.
Lord, You answered Elijah’s persistent prayer after years of drought, and You honored a widow’s refusal to stop asking an unjust judge for justice. You granted Jabez’s bold, specific request, and You met Nehemiah in the split second between a king’s question and his own answer.
You heard Hezekiah’s raw tears even after a message that sounded final, and You saw Hannah’s silent, misunderstood prayer at the temple. These Bible Verses For Prayer and Faith teach me that You welcome every kind of honest approach. Teach me the same prayer and faith today, whether it needs to be patient, bold, quick, honest, or simply silent and sincere. Amen.
Some assume that faith-filled prayer must be calm and unhurried to count as genuine. Nehemiah’s split-second prayer before the king corrects this, since his faith fit into a single silent breath under real pressure. The persistent widow corrects a second assumption, that repeated asking shows a lack of trust, when Jesus actually commended her persistence.
Jabez corrects a third misunderstanding, that humble prayer must be vague or modest rather than specific, and Hezekiah corrects a fourth, that prayer cannot change a message that already sounds final. Hannah corrects a fifth, that genuine prayer always looks recognizably devout to onlookers. Bible Verses For Prayer and Faith describe requests that are patient, bold, specific, quick, raw and even misunderstood, not limited to one particular style or tone.
Each day highlights a different shape that faith-filled prayer can take.
Take time this week to reflect honestly using these questions.
A few more to consider:
If you have been praying about something for a long time without an answer, take Elijah’s example and keep watching for even a small sign rather than giving up entirely. If you tend to stop asking too soon, let the persistent widow’s story encourage you to bring the same request again this week. For more encouragement, see Bible Verses About Prayer and Faith and Bible Verses For Faith in Hard Times.
Practice praying specifically rather than vaguely this week, following Jabez’s example of naming exactly what you need. And in a sudden hard moment, like Nehemiah faced before the king or Hezekiah faced with a diagnosis, practice turning to God instantly and honestly, even if your prayer looks unusual to others the way Hannah’s did. Bible Verses For Prayer and Faith remind us that God welcomes patient, bold, instant, raw and silent prayers alike.
Paul gives a short recipe in Romans 10:17: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” He was writing to a church in Rome that included Jewish and Gentile believers who often disagreed, and his point was plain. Nobody argues themselves into trust from nothing. Trust grows when a person keeps listening to what God has actually said, over and over, until it settles in the bones.
That changes how a prayer life gets built. If you only speak to God and never listen to Him through the pages of Scripture, your prayers can drift toward whatever you happen to be afraid of that week. Reading a few verses first gives the prayer something to lean on. Picture a man in a long unemployment who opens a Psalm before his morning coffee, then prays about the interview with the Psalm still echoing. He is not pretending the bills have disappeared. He is letting a larger voice speak before his own anxious one takes over. Over months, that order of things, hearing first and asking second, tends to produce a steadier kind of faith than any burst of emotion could.
The apostles once made a request that sounds familiar to anyone who has felt spiritually thin: “Increase our faith” (Luke 17:5). Jesus did not hand them a larger quantity. He answered, “If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you” (Luke 17:6). A mustard seed is tiny, and a sycamine tree has deep, stubborn roots. The contrast is deliberate.
What strikes me is that Jesus treats the problem as one of connection, not volume. A small seed of real trust, planted in the right God, does more than a large pile of confidence aimed at nothing in particular. So if you feel that your faith is the size of a crumb, take heart that crumbs were exactly what Jesus was talking about. Bring that crumb to prayer today. Say what you honestly believe, even if it is just that God is real and you need Him. Then leave the sycamine tree for Him to deal with at His own speed, and keep showing up while He does.
Paul wrote Ephesians from a Roman house arrest, chained to a guard, and he describes spiritual strength with the picture of a soldier’s equipment. After the shield of faith and the other pieces, he ends with something that does not look like equipment at all: “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints” (Ephesians 6:18).
Two details deserve attention. The first is the word always, which in daily life means the short prayers whispered at a red light, over the sink, or in the school pickup line, not only the formal ones. The second is for all saints. Prayer in this passage is not a private errand. Paul expects ordinary believers to hold up other believers by name, and he even asks the Ephesians to pray for him (Ephesians 6:19-20). Try this: write three names on a card tonight and keep it in your Bible. Pray for those three until something changes, and then add another. Faith that includes other people in its prayers rarely stays small or self-centered.
In 2 Corinthians 5:7 Paul writes, “(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)” in the middle of a long passage about suffering, aging bodies and the hope of resurrection. He was not telling people to ignore evidence. He was telling them that the visible world is not the final measure of what is real. A walker keeps moving forward on a path even when he cannot see the end of it.
That picture helps when prayer meets silence. You asked, and nothing visible has changed yet. The scene looks the same as it did last month. Walking by faith, in that setting, means taking the next sensible step, whether that is making the phone call, paying the bill you can pay, or showing up to the appointment, while continuing to bring the matter to God. Matthew 7:7 uses three verbs in a row: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” The verbs describe ongoing action. Keep asking, keep looking, keep knocking, and keep moving your feet in the meantime.
Some things are worth saying plainly. Praying with faith does not replace a doctor, a counselor, a lawyer or a wise friend. If you are sick, anxious or in real trouble, pray and also pick up the phone. God commonly works through the people and skills He has placed around you.
Also be careful about measuring someone else’s trust by their circumstances. A person whose child is still ill may be praying with more faith than anyone in the room. Judging them adds weight to a burden already heavy. Finally, resist the temptation to treat any single verse as a vending machine. Each promise lives inside a book, an audience and a history, and reading it there keeps your expectations honest and your trust steady.
Other collections you may find useful: Bible Verses About Prayer and Faith, Bible Verses About Prayer and Protection, Bible Verses For Prayer For Exams, Bible Verses For Faith in Hard Times and Bible Verses For Faith During Difficult Times.
To study these verses in more depth, try Bible Gateway, Bible Hub and Bible Study Tools.
Many believers find it easier to pray when they have Scripture in front of them. Start with Hebrews 4:16 and come boldly, knowing the throne you approach is a throne of grace.
This page brings together 14 King James Version references about prayer and Faith, drawn from 12 different books of the Bible.
These prayer and Faith verses are drawn from books including Hebrews, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Romans, among others.
Yes. The verses about prayer and Faith gathered here include passages from both the Old Testament and the New Testament, such as 1 Kings 18:41 and Hebrews 4:16.
Hebrews 4:16 is one of the verses about prayer and Faith referenced in this collection, alongside Matthew 7:7.
