27 Bible Verses about Prayer, Doubts About

So Moses returned to the LORD and asked him, "LORD, why have you caused trouble for this people? Why have you sent me here? Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has caused trouble for this people, and you have done nothing to deliver your people."

But Abram replied, "Lord GOD, what can you give me since I continue to be childless, and the heir of my household is Eliezer from Damascus? Look!" Abram said, "You haven't given me any offspring, so a servant born in my house is going to be my heir."

"Lord GOD," Joshua asked, "Why have you brought this people across the Jordan River? To hand us over to the Amorites so we'll be destroyed? Wouldn't it have been better for us to be content to settle on the other side of the Jordan? Lord, what am I to say, now that Israel has run away from its enemies? The Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of this, will surround us, and eliminate us from the earth! Then what will you do about your great reputation?"

so he asked the LORD, "Why did you bring all this trouble to your servant? Why haven't I found favor in your eyes? After all, you're putting the burden of this entire people on me! Did I conceive this people or give birth to them, so that you would tell me to carry them near my heart like a wet nurse carries a suckling baby to the land that you promised to their forefathers? Where am I going to get meat to give this people? After all, they're crying in front of me, "Give us meat to eat!' read more.
I cannot carry this whole nation! The burden is too heavy for me! If this is how you treat me, please kill me right now, if I've found favor in your eyes, because I don't want to keep staring at all of this misery!"

and ran for a day's journey deep into the wilderness. He found a juniper tree, sat down under it, and prayed that he could die. He asked God, "Enough! LORD! Take my life, because I'm not better than my ancestors!"

You are aware LORD, remember me, pay attention to me, and vindicate me in front of those who pursue me. You are patient don't take me away. Know that I suffer insult because of you! Your words were found, and I consumed them. Your words were joy and my hearts delight, because I bear your name, LORD God of the Heavenly Armies. I didn't sit in the company of those who have fun, and I didn't rejoice. Because of your hand on me, I sat alone, for you filled me with indignation.read more.
Why is my pain unending and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You are like a deceptive brook, whose waters cannot be depended on.

You deceived me, LORD, and I've been deceived. You overpowered me, and you prevailed. I've become a laughing stock all day long, and everyone mocks me. Indeed, as often as I speak, I cry out, and shout, "Violence and destruction!" For this message from the LORD has caused me constant reproach and derision. When I say, "I won't remember the LORD, nor will I speak in his name anymore, then there is this burning fire in my heart. It is bound up in my bones, I grow weary of trying to hold it in, and I cannot do it!

Greatly displeased, Jonah flew into a rage. So he prayed to the LORD, "LORD, isn't this what I said while I was still in my home country? That's why I fled previously to Tarshish, because I knew you're a compassionate God, slow to anger, overflowing with gracious love, and reluctant to send trouble. Therefore, LORD, please kill me, because it's better for me to die than to live!"

About three o'clock, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "Eli, eli, lema sabachthani?", which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

At three o'clock, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "Eloi, eloi, lema sabachthani?" (which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?")

My God! My God! Why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far from delivering me from my groaning words?

I'll say to God, "Don't condemn me! Let me know why you are fighting me. Does it delight you to oppress or despise what you have made, while you smile at the plans of the wicked? Do you have eyes made of flesh? Can you look at things as humans do?read more.
Can you live only as long as a human being? Or live the years of a mortal man? ""For you seek out my iniquity and search for my sin. Although you know that I'm not guilty, there's no one to deliver me from you! Your hands formed and fashioned me, but then you have destroyed me all at once on all sides. ""Please remember that you've made me like clay and you'll return me to dust. Didn't you pour me out like milk and let me congeal like cheese? You covered me with skin and flesh, weaving me together with bones and sinews. You gave life and gracious love to me; your providential care has preserved my spirit. But you've hidden these things in your heart I know this was your purpose: If I sin, you watch me and won't acquit me for my iniquity. ""Woe to me if I'm guilty! If I'm innocent, I cannot lift my head, because I am filled with disgrace. Look at my affliction! But if I do lift up my head, you will hunt me like a lion! You will perform miracles in order to fight against me. ""You have brought new witnesses against me, you're even more angry with me you've brought fresh troops to attack me! So why did you bring me out from the womb? I wish I had died, before anyone had seen me, as if I had never existed; carried from the womb to the grave. My days are so few, aren't they? So leave me alone, then, so I can smile a little before I go, never to return, leaving for the land of deep darkness and shadow. It's a gloomy land, like deepest darkness; where there's no order, and where even the brightness is like darkness.'"

Grant me only two things as you deal with me; then I won't hide from you. Withdraw your hand far from me and keep me from being petrified with terror. Then call and I'll answer, or let me speak and then you reply to me!"read more.
"How many of my iniquities and sins have you counted? Show me my transgression and sin. Why do you hide your face and regard me as your enemy? Are you a god who would make a leaf tremble or who would prosecute a dry straw? You've accused me of bitter things; you've caused me to reap the sins of my youth. You've locked my feet in stocks; you watch all my steps; You've limited where I can walk.

Human beings born by women are short-lived and full of trouble. He springs up like a flower and then withers. Like a shadow, he disappears and doesn't last. Indeed, have you opened your eyes on one like this to bring me into a legal fight with you?read more.
Who can produce a clean thing from an unclean thing? No one! Since his days have been determined, the number of his months is known to you. You've set his limit and he cannot exceed it. Look away from him and leave him alone, so he can enjoy his time, like a hired worker." "There is hope for the tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots won't stop growing. Even if its roots have grown ancient in the earth, and its stump begins to rot in the ground, the presence of water will make it to bud so that it sprouts new branches like a young plant. "But when a person dies and wastes away, when a person breathes his last, where will he be? As water disappears from the sea, or water evaporates from a river, so also a person lies down and does not get up; they won't awaken until the heavens are no more, nor will they arise from their sleep." "Won't you keep me safe in the afterlife? Conceal me until your anger subsides. Set an appointment for me, then remember me. If a human being dies, will he live again? I will endure the entire time of my assigned service, until I am changed. You'll call and I'll answer you; you'll long for your creatures that your hands have made. Then you'll certainly count every step I took, but you won't keep an inventory of my sin. My transgressions would be sealed up in a bag; you would cover over my sins. "Mountains fall and crumble; rocks are dislodged from their places. Water wears away stones; floods wash away topsoil from the land but you destroy the hope of human beings just like that! You overpower him once and for all, and then he departs; you change his appearance and then send him away. "If his children are honored, he doesn't know it; if they become insignificant, he never perceives it. He feels only his own pain, and grieves only for himself."

How long? LORD, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I struggle in my soul at night and have sorrow in my heart during the day? How long will my enemy rise up against me?

I will ask God, my Rock, "Why have you forsaken me? Why do I go around mourning under the enemy's oppression?" Like the shattering of my bones are the taunts of my oppressors, saying to me all day long, "Where is your God?"

For your sake we are being killed all day long. We are thought of as sheep to be slaughtered. Wake up! Why are you asleep, Lord? Get up! Don't cast us off forever! Why are you hiding your face? Why are you ignoring our affliction and oppression?read more.
For we have collapsed in the dust; our bodies cling to the ground. Arise! Deliver us! Redeem us according to your gracious love! To the Director: An instruction by the Sons of Korah. A love song to the tune of "Lilies".

Will the Lord reject me forever and not show favor again? Has his gracious love ceased forever? Will his promise be unfulfilled in future generations? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger withheld his compassion? Interlude

LORD God of the Heavenly Armies, when will your smoldering anger toward your people's prayers cease? You fed them tears as their food, and caused them to drink a full measure of tears. You have set us at strife against our neighbors and our enemies deride us.

You have assigned me to the lowest part of the Pit, to the darkest depths. Your anger lies heavily upon me; you pound me with all your waves. Interlude You caused my acquaintances to shun me; you make me extremely abhorrent to them. Restrained, I am unable to go out.read more.
My eyes languish on account of my affliction; all day long I call out to you, LORD, I spread out my hands to you.

"How long, LORD, must I cry out for help, but you won't listen? I'm crying out to you, "Violence!' but you aren't providing deliverance. Why are you forcing me to look at iniquity and to stare at wickedness? Social havoc and oppression are all around me; there are legal conflicts, and disputes abound.

But Abram replied, "Lord GOD, what can you give me since I continue to be childless, and the heir of my household is Eliezer from Damascus? Look!" Abram said, "You haven't given me any offspring, so a servant born in my house is going to be my heir." A message came from the LORD to him again: "This one will not be your heir. Instead, the child who will be born to you will be your heir." read more.
Then the LORD took him outside. "Look up at the sky and count the stars if you can!" he said. "Your descendants will be that numerous."

The LORD told Moses, "Now you're about to see what I'll do to Pharaoh. Indeed, he'll send them out under compulsion and he'll drive them out of his land violently." Later, God told Moses, "I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, and did I not reveal to them my name "LORD'? read more.
I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land where they lived as resident aliens for a time. Also, I've heard the groaning of the Israelis whom the Egyptians have forced to labor for them, and I've remembered my covenant. Therefore, tell the Israelis, "I am the LORD. I'll bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I'll deliver you from their bondage. I'll redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I'll take you for my own people, and I'll be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I'll bring you to the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I'll give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.'"

Ahab complained to Jezebel about everything that Elijah had done, especially the part about him killing all the prophets of Baal with a sword. Jezebel sent a messenger to tell Elijah, "May the gods do the same to me and even more if tomorrow about this time I haven't made you like one of those prophets you had killed." Elijah was terrified, so he got up and ran for his life to Beer-sheba, which is part of Judah, and left his servant there read more.
and ran for a day's journey deep into the wilderness. He found a juniper tree, sat down under it, and prayed that he could die. He asked God, "Enough! LORD! Take my life, because I'm not better than my ancestors!" Then he lay down and went to sleep under the juniper tree. All of a sudden, there was an angel, who kept grabbing him and telling him, "Get up! Eat!" So he looked around, and there near his head was a muffin sitting on top of some heated stones, along with a jar of water. Elijah ate and drank and then lay down again. Later, the angel of the LORD came a second time, grabbed him, and said "Get up! Eat! The journey ahead is too difficult for you!" So Elijah got up, ate and drank, and survived on that one meal for 40 days and nights as he set out on his journey to Horeb, God's mountain.

The LORD continued his response to Job by saying: "Should the one who is fighting the Almighty find fault with him? Let God's accuser answer." Then Job replied to the LORD. He said:read more.
"I must look insignificant to you! How can I answer you? I'm speechless. I spoke once, but I can't answer; I tried a second time, but I won't do so anymore." The LORD answered Job from the wind storm and told him: "Stand up like a man! I'll ask you some questions, and you give me some answers! Indeed would you annul my justice and condemn me, just so you can claim that you're righteous? Do you have strength like God? Can you create thunder with a sound like he can?"

Therefore, this is what the LORD says: "If you repent, I'll take you back and you will stand before me. If you speak what is worthwhile, instead of what is worthless, then you will be my spokesman. People will turn to you, but you aren't to turn to them. I'll make you a fortified wall of bronze to this people. They'll fight against you, but they won't prevail against you, for I am with you to save you and deliver you," So I'll deliver you from the hand of the wicked, and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless."

"Look out at the nations and pay attention! Be astounded! Be really astounded! Because something is happening in your lifetime that you won't believe, even if it were described down to the smallest detail. Watch out! For I am bringing in the Chaldeans, that cruel and impetuous people, who sweep across the earth dispossessing people from homes not their own. They are terrible and fearsome; their brand of justice and sense of honor derive only from themselves!read more.
Their horses are swifter than leopards, and more cunning than wolves that attack at night. Their horsemen are galloping as they approach from far away. They swoop in like ravenous vultures. "They all come to oppress hordes of them, their faces pressing onward they take prisoners as numerous as the desert sand! They make fun of kings, deriding those who rule. They laugh at all of the fortified places, constructing ramps to seize them. Then like the wind sweeping by they will pass through they're guilty because they say their power is their god."