Bible verses for prayer and strength are for the days when you feel worn out and have little left to give. Again and again Scripture tells us the Lord gives power to the faint and renews those who wait on Him. These passages turn weakness into prayer and remind you that God’s strength shows up most clearly when yours runs low.
He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Isaiah 40:29-31 (KJV)
God gives power to the faint, and those who wait on Him renew their strength.
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Philippians 4:13 (KJV)
Paul’s confidence rests in Christ, who strengthens him for every circumstance.
The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.
Psalms 28:7 (KJV)
Trusting the Lord as strength and shield turns into a song of praise.
That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
Ephesians 3:16 (KJV)
Paul prays that believers be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man.
In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.
Psalms 138:3 (KJV)
When David cried out, God answered and strengthened him in his soul.
Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Nehemiah 8:10 (KJV)
The joy of the Lord is named as the strength of His people.
Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
Deuteronomy 31:6 (KJV)
God’s presence is the reason to be strong and courageous, because He will not fail or forsake you.
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (KJV)
God’s strength is made perfect in weakness, so Paul could say, when I am weak, then am I strong.
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Psalms 46:1 (KJV)
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
Psalms 73:26 (KJV)
Even when flesh and heart fail, God remains the strength of the heart.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Ephesians 6:10 (KJV)
Believers are told to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
Seek the Lord, and his strength: seek his face evermore.
Psalms 105:4 (KJV)
Seeking the Lord and His strength is an ongoing habit, not a one-time act.
And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
Luke 22:43 (KJV)
In Gethsemane, an angel appeared to Jesus, strengthening Him as He prayed.
Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
Colossians 1:11 (KJV)
This prayer asks for strength with all might, unto patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.
I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
Psalms 18:1-2 (KJV)
David calls the Lord his strength, rock, fortress and deliverer.
The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.
Habakkuk 3:19 (KJV)
God makes the prophet’s feet like hinds’ feet, able to walk on high places.
But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
1 Peter 5:10 (KJV)
After suffering, God promises to perfect, stablish, strengthen and settle His people.
Strength from God rarely feels like a sudden surge; more often it is the grace to take the next step. When you are tired, open with Psalm 138:3, which recalls that God answered and strengthened the psalmist in his soul. Tell the Lord honestly how weary you feel, then read Isaiah 40:29-31 as His reply.
Try praying these verses at the start of a hard task, before a difficult conversation, or at night when worries crowd in. Ephesians 3:16 is a good prayer for others too: ask that a friend or family member be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man. Praying Scripture for someone else often lifts your own heart as well.
Remember that even Jesus prayed in weakness. In Gethsemane, Luke 22:43 records that an angel appeared from heaven, strengthening Him. You are not failing when you need help. Nehemiah 8:10 points you to a lasting source: the joy of the Lord is your strength, and it does not depend on how strong you feel today.
Isaiah 40:31 works well prayed by naming the specific situation requiring strength, asking for renewal through time spent with God.
Some of the same ground is covered in Bible Verses About Following God and Bible Verses About Fathers.
All Scripture here is quoted from the King James Version, which you can read in full at Blue Letter Bible.
Bible Verses For Love and Marriage and Bible Verses For Overcoming Anxiety explore related themes.
You might also turn to Bible Verses For Trust and Bible Verses For Christian Living.
For a related angle, see Bible Verses For Wealth or Bible Verses For Peace in the Storm.
Bible Verses For Prayer and Peace and Bible Verses About Prayer and Peace pick up threads that run through these verses.
Comparing translations can help, and Bible Gateway does that for free.
Bible Hub collects commentary on every verse if you want to study one more closely.
Return to this verse whenever your strength runs low, asking for renewal through prayer.
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 you need strength today more than you need answers.
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 strength to simply get through today.
Exhausted and ready to die after fleeing Jezebel, Elijah fell asleep under a broom tree until an angel woke him twice, providing bread and water before telling him the journey ahead was too great for him without it (1 Kings 19:4-8). Strengthened by that food, he walked forty days to Horeb, the mountain of God, farther than he expected to travel that week.
Bible Verses For Prayer and Strength include Elijah here because his renewal began with rest and a meal, not a dramatic spiritual encounter. Sometimes the prayer for strength is answered first through the body before it ever reaches the soul, in ways we might easily overlook entirely, at least at first glance.
Blinded, humiliated and put on display for the Philistines’ entertainment, Samson asked to be positioned between the temple’s pillars and prayed a short, direct request that God would strengthen him one final time to bring the building down (Judges 16:28-30). His strength returned enough for one last act, though it cost him his own life along with his enemies that day.
This collection includes Samson’s account because it shows prayer for strength offered honestly out of a life full of failure, not from a position of confidence or clean standing before God.
Facing an army far larger than his own, Gideon twice asked God to confirm the promised victory through a fleece of wool, first wet with dew while the ground stayed dry, then dry while the ground stayed wet (Judges 6:36-40). Only after this reassurance did Gideon lead a drastically reduced army of three hundred men into battle against overwhelming odds.
Gideon’s prayer and strength depended on honest reassurance before bold action rather than confidence he did not yet feel. Bible Verses For Prayer and Strength include Gideon because God patiently answered doubt-filled requests before asking for courage.
Facing the crucifixion ahead of Him, Jesus prayed so intensely in the garden that His sweat became like great drops of blood, asking that the cup pass from Him yet submitting to the Father’s will, and an angel appeared from heaven strengthening Him (Luke 22:41-44). Even Jesus, in His full humanity, needed strength given to Him in prayer during that difficult night before His arrest.
This collection includes Gethsemane because it shows that praying for strength while afraid is not a lack of faith. It is exactly what Jesus Himself did before the hardest hours of His life.
After years of being provoked by a rival wife over her childlessness, Hannah poured out her prayer so intensely at the temple that the priest Eli mistook her silent lips for drunkenness, yet she found strength simply in the act of pouring out her grief honestly before God (1 Samuel 1:10-18). She left with a settled peace well before the outcome she had been praying for arrived at all.
Bible Verses For Prayer and Strength include Hannah’s account because her strength came from being fully honest in prayer rather than from having her request already answered. The relief showed on her face before anything visible had changed for the better.
While rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls under constant threat of mockery and attack, Nehemiah repeatedly turned to short, urgent prayers, asking God directly to strengthen his hands for the work in front of him (Nehemiah 6:9). His prayers were brief and specific, offered in the middle of active opposition rather than during quiet, uninterrupted time set apart for prayer.
His prayer and strength were tied directly to ongoing, practical work rather than a single crisis moment. Bible Verses For Prayer and Strength include Nehemiah because they show that short, repeated prayers offered mid-task can sustain someone through sustained pressure over many long weeks.
Lord, You fed and rested Elijah before sending him on a journey too great for his own strength, and You answered Samson’s honest final prayer even after years of failure. You patiently confirmed Gideon’s calling before asking for his courage, and You sent an angel to strengthen Jesus Himself in Gethsemane.
You gave Hannah peace through honest tears, and You strengthened Nehemiah’s hands in the middle of constant opposition, day after day, without complaint. These Bible Verses For Prayer and Strength remind me that You meet every kind of weakness differently. Give me that same strength today, whether I need rest, honesty, confirmation, courage before hardship, or endurance through ongoing pressure. Amen.
Some assume that praying for strength means something has gone wrong spiritually, since strong faith should not need renewal. Elijah’s story corrects this, since his exhaustion was met with practical rest rather than any rebuke. Gideon’s repeated requests for confirmation correct a second assumption, that doubt disqualifies someone from being used by God.
Samson corrects a third misunderstanding, that only people with a clean record can pray for strength and expect an answer, and Jesus’s own prayer in Gethsemane corrects a fourth, that needing strength is itself a sign of weak faith. Hannah and Nehemiah correct a fifth, that strength must come as one dramatic answer rather than through honest tears or short, repeated requests. These Bible Verses For Prayer and Strength describe an honest request God consistently answers in whatever form it takes.
Each day considers a different setting where prayer brought needed strength.
Take a few minutes this week to reflect honestly and slowly using these questions.
A few more to consider:
If exhaustion has been building, take Elijah’s example seriously and allow yourself real rest before expecting spiritual clarity to return. If there is a failure you have been carrying quietly, bring an honest prayer to God the way Samson finally did, without pretending to have a clean record first. For more encouragement, see Bible Verses About Prayer and Strength and Bible Verses For Prayer and Faith.
If you are uncertain about a decision, it is acceptable to ask God for confirmation the way Gideon did before stepping forward in courage. And when something hard is directly ahead of you, pray honestly for strength the way Jesus did in Gethsemane.
If grief has been building quietly, let Hannah’s honesty give you permission to pour it out too, and if opposition is wearing you down, try Nehemiah’s habit of short, repeated prayers right in the middle of your work. Returning to these Bible Verses For Prayer and Strength regularly, even briefly each day, can steady you far more than waiting for one dramatic breakthrough to arrive eventually somewhere down the road ahead.
Second Chronicles 20 begins with bad news: a vast coalition of armies is marching on Judah. King Jehoshaphat is afraid, and the text says so. Then he does something good. He calls the whole country to fast, stands in the temple courtyard, and prays. The ending of that prayer is as honest as any in the Bible: “we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee” (2 Chronicles 20:12).
Look at the order. He admits the lack of power, admits the lack of a plan, and then turns his eyes. Many of us skip the first two steps and go straight to a polished request. The Lord answers through a Levite named Jahaziel, who tells them the battle is not theirs but God’s.
When you gather a few verses for a hard week, borrow this prayer. Say out loud that you do not have the might, and you do not know what to do. It is a relief to say that to Someone who is not alarmed. Then put the situation where your eyes can rest on God rather than on the rumors circling it.
First Samuel 30 is a grim chapter. David returns to Ziklag and finds the town burned and every wife and child taken. His own men talk of stoning him. Verse 6 says, “David was greatly distressed,” and then gives a short line that deserves attention: “but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.”
Encouraged himself. Nobody else was available to do it. The men around him were grieving and angry, so he went to the one source that had not failed. Then he asked for the ephod and sought the Lord’s direction about whether to pursue. Strength led to a question, not to blind rushing.
It is easy to read that verse as a kind of self-help slogan. It is not. David did not talk himself up. He turned toward God and inquired. You can do something similar when the phone call brings terrible news, when the diagnosis lands, when the job ends. Open the Psalms, pray aloud in the car, and ask God what the next honest move is. Then call a friend as well. The story shows a man alone for a moment, not a man meant to stay alone.
Paul finishes Ephesians with a command that gets quoted on mugs: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might” (Ephesians 6:10). Look at the preposition. He does not say be strong in yourself. Strength has an address, and it is in the Lord.
The armor that follows is described piece by piece, and every piece is something received or practiced: truth, righteousness, the readiness of the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, the word of God. Paul wrote from a prison, probably chained to a Roman guard, so he could see a soldier’s kit up close each day. His picture is not a fantasy. It was drawn from the man standing next to him.
The last piece mentioned is not a weapon at all but prayer: “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18). The armor is worn while praying. If you have been wondering how prayer and strength fit together, here is the verse that welds them. Start the day by dressing in that order, one named piece at a time, and keep praying until you take it off at night.
There is a quiet group of people who need these verses badly: the ones who care for someone else around the clock. They are not on the platform at church. They are in the kitchen at five a.m. checking a medication list. They love the person in the next room and sometimes resent how long it has lasted, and then they feel ashamed of the resentment.
Psalm 73:26 speaks to them: “My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.” The psalmist admits that both body and heart can fail, and he does not treat it as scandal. God is the portion, the thing that remains when the inner reserves run out.
Take that verse literally in practical ways. Accept the meal offered by the neighbor. Ask your church for a respite afternoon. Tell your own doctor how you are sleeping. Strength from God often arrives wearing the face of a helper, so let yourself be helped. Pray for endurance, certainly, and pray as well that someone will notice and knock on your door.
Habakkuk 3 ends a short, troubled book with a surprising song. The prophet has just described a failed economy: no figs on the tree, no fruit on the vines, no meat in the fold, no cattle in the stalls. Then he writes, “The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places” (Habakkuk 3:19).
A deer on a mountainside places each hoof on a narrow ledge, one careful step after another, without looking down. That is the picture. The strength he asks for is surefootedness on steep ground, the kind that keeps you upright while the valley below is still in ruins. He does not say the harvest will return by Friday.
Try holding that image next to your own hard stretch. You may not need a leap across the whole gap. You may only need the next ledge. Pray for foot-by-foot steadiness and pay attention to where the ground is firm today.
If you want to keep going with this theme, try Bible Verses About Prayer and Strength, Bible Verses About Strength and Hope, Bible Verses About Powerful Prayer, Bible Verses For Prayer For Direction and Bible Verses For Prayer.
For deeper study, Bible Gateway, Bible Hub and Bible Study Tools are all free to use.
Strength from God rarely feels like a sudden surge; more often it is the grace to take the next step. When you are tired, open with Psalm 138:3, which recalls that God answered and strengthened the psalmist in his soul.
This page brings together 16 King James Version references about prayer and Strength, drawn from 8 different books of the Bible.
Beyond the references highlighted on this page, prayer and Strength appears throughout Scripture in books such as Psalm, Isaiah, Ephesians, Luke, Nehemiah; this collection focuses on some of the clearest examples.
These prayer and Strength verses are drawn from books including Psalm, Isaiah, Ephesians, Luke, Nehemiah, among others.
Yes. The verses about prayer and Strength gathered here include passages from both the Old Testament and the New Testament, such as Psalm 138:3 and Ephesians 3:16.
