When You Don't Know What to Pray Sample

When You Are Angry

Father, please calm me in the moments when anger has taken hold. I know You call me to release it and forgive, but I need You to help me do so. I am grateful that You are patient, loving, and forgiving toward me. You have more reasons to be angry than I ever do, yet You always look to me with compassion and mercy. Please help me to be more like You—in word, thought, and deed. 

Lord, I confess my anger today and ask You to please cleanse my heart of the deep resentment and injury I feel. Those emotions run so deep, Father, and the strength of those feelings alarms me at times. This situation touched a profound place within me that needs healing, which is why this person’s actions provoked me so completely. Please show me where this pain originates from, and root it out so that I will not sin against You. When I am angry, reveal constructive and loving ways to deal with my emotions—giving me the patience and wisdom to pause and deal with what is really going on, rather than just lashing out. 

Please help me to forgive as You do, Jesus, knowing that You can bring justice and healing in this situation. Show me Your divine perspective of this person and situation so I can have compassion and can extend grace. Jesus, as the Roman soldiers nailed You to the cross, You said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). I know that is the kind of heart You call me to have. Even if the person who wounded me knows some of what they’ve done, I realize that a broken part of them is blind to why they commit these actions. So I pray You would reveal Yourself to them powerfully—leading them to a deeper relationship with You, healing them, and working reconciliation in and through these circumstances. Father, please help me to be like You—loving, holy, and forgiving even when it is difficult. 

I know that nothing passes through Your hand and touches my life without some purpose. So whether You are revealing my woundedness, leading me to forgive, or teaching some other lesson that will help me become more like You, please make it known to me, Father. I want to be a person who reflects the character of Jesus. Father, please help me understand why certain traps entangle me and how I can be free of them. And show me, my Savior, how I can be Your representative—helping others to be liberated from their anger and leading them to faith in You. 

In Jesus’s name I pray. Amen.