27 Bible Verses about Prayer, Doubts About

Moses returned to the Lord, and said, "Lord, why have you caused trouble for this people? Why did you ever send me? From the time I went to speak to Pharaoh in your name, he has caused trouble for this people, and you have certainly not rescued them!"

But Abram said, "O sovereign Lord, what will you give me since I continue to be childless, and my heir is Eliezer of Damascus?" Abram added, "Since you have not given me a descendant, then look, one born in my house will be my heir!"

Joshua prayed, "O, Master, Lord! Why did you bring these people across the Jordan to hand us over to the Amorites so they could destroy us? If only we had been satisfied to live on the other side of the Jordan! O Lord, what can I say now that Israel has retreated before its enemies? When the Canaanites and all who live in the land hear about this, they will turn against us and destroy the very memory of us from the earth. What will you do to protect your great reputation?"

And Moses said to the Lord, "Why have you afflicted your servant? Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of this entire people on me? Did I conceive this entire people? Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, 'Carry them in your arms, as a foster father bears a nursing child,' to the land which you swore to their fathers? From where shall I get meat to give to this entire people, for they cry to me, 'Give us meat, that we may eat!'read more.
I am not able to bear this entire people alone, because it is too heavy for me! But if you are going to deal with me like this, then kill me immediately. If I have found favor in your sight then do not let me see my trouble."

while he went a day's journey into the desert. He went and sat down under a shrub and asked the Lord to take his life: "I've had enough! Now, O Lord, take my life. After all, I'm no better than my ancestors."

I said, "Lord, you know how I suffer. Take thought of me and care for me. Pay back for me those who have been persecuting me. Do not be so patient with them that you allow them to kill me. Be mindful of how I have put up with their insults for your sake. As your words came to me I drank them in, and they filled my heart with joy and happiness because I belong to you. I did not spend my time in the company of other people, laughing and having a good time. I stayed to myself because I felt obligated to you and because I was filled with anger at what they had done.read more.
Why must I continually suffer such painful anguish? Why must I endure the sting of their insults like an incurable wound? Will you let me down when I need you like a brook one goes to for water, but that cannot be relied on?"

Lord, you coerced me into being a prophet, and I allowed you to do it. You overcame my resistance and prevailed over me. Now I have become a constant laughingstock. Everyone ridicules me. For whenever I prophesy, I must cry out, "Violence and destruction are coming!" This message from the Lord has made me an object of continual insults and derision. Sometimes I think, "I will make no mention of his message. I will not speak as his messenger any more." But then his message becomes like a fire locked up inside of me, burning in my heart and soul. I grow weary of trying to hold it in; I cannot contain it.

This displeased Jonah terribly and he became very angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, "Oh, Lord, this is just what I thought would happen when I was in my own country. This is what I tried to prevent by attempting to escape to Tarshish! -- because I knew that you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and one who relents concerning threatened judgment. So now, Lord, kill me instead, because I would rather die than live!"

At about three o'clock Jesus shouted with a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Around 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?"

For the music director; according to the tune "Morning Doe;" a psalm of David. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? I groan in prayer, but help seems far away.

I will say to God, 'Do not condemn me; tell me why you are contending with me.' Is it good for you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands, while you smile on the schemes of the wicked? "Do you have eyes of flesh, or do you see as a human being sees?read more.
Are your days like the days of a mortal, or your years like the years of a mortal, that you must search out my iniquity, and inquire about my sin, although you know that I am not guilty, and that there is no one who can deliver out of your hand? "Your hands have shaped me and made me, but now you destroy me completely. Remember that you have made me as with the clay; will you return me to dust? Did you not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese? You clothed me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews. You gave me life and favor, and your intervention watched over my spirit. "But these things you have concealed in your heart; I know that this is with you: If I sinned, then you would watch me and you would not acquit me of my iniquity. If I am guilty, woe to me, and if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head; I am full of shame, and satiated with my affliction. If I lift myself up, you hunt me as a fierce lion, and again you display your power against me. You bring new witnesses against me, and increase your anger against me; relief troops come against me. "Why then did you bring me out from the womb? I should have died and no eye would have seen me! I should have been as though I had never existed; I should have been carried right from the womb to the grave! Are not my days few? Cease, then, and leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort, before I depart, never to return, to the land of darkness and the deepest shadow, to the land of utter darkness, like the deepest darkness, and the deepest shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness."

Only in two things spare me, O God, and then I will not hide from your face: Remove your hand far from me and stop making me afraid with your terror. Then call, and I will answer, or I will speak, and you respond to me.read more.
How many are my iniquities and sins? Show me my transgression and my sin. Why do you hide your face and regard me as your enemy? Do you wish to torment a windblown leaf and chase after dry chaff? For you write down bitter things against me and cause me to inherit the sins of my youth. And you put my feet in the stocks and you watch all my movements; you put marks on the soles of my feet.

"Man, born of woman, lives but a few days, and they are full of trouble. He grows up like a flower and then withers away; he flees like a shadow, and does not remain. Do you fix your eye on such a one? And do you bring me before you for judgment?read more.
Who can make a clean thing come from an unclean? No one! Since man's days are determined, the number of his months is under your control; you have set his limit and he cannot pass it. Look away from him and let him desist, until he fulfills his time like a hired man. "But there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail. Although its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump begins to die in the soil, at the scent of water it will flourish and put forth shoots like a new plant. But man dies and is powerless; he expires -- and where is he? As water disappears from the sea, or a river drains away and dries up, so man lies down and does not rise; until the heavens are no more, they will not awake nor arise from their sleep. "O that you would hide me in Sheol, and conceal me till your anger has passed! O that you would set me a time and then remember me! If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait until my release comes. You will call and I -- I will answer you; you will long for the creature you have made. "Surely now you count my steps; then you would not mark my sin. My offenses would be sealed up in a bag; you would cover over my sin. But as a mountain falls away and crumbles, and as a rock will be removed from its place, as water wears away stones, and torrents wash away the soil, so you destroy man's hope. You overpower him once for all, and he departs; you change his appearance and send him away. If his sons are honored, he does not know it; if they are brought low, he does not see it. Only his flesh has pain for himself, and he mourns for himself."

For the music director; a psalm of David. How long, Lord, will you continue to ignore me? How long will you pay no attention to me? How long must I worry, and suffer in broad daylight? How long will my enemy gloat over me?

I will pray to God, my high ridge: "Why do you ignore me? Why must I walk around mourning because my enemies oppress me?" My enemies' taunts cut into me to the bone, as they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"

Yet because of you we are killed all day long; we are treated like sheep at the slaughtering block. Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Wake up! Do not reject us forever! Why do you look the other way, and ignore the way we are oppressed and mistreated?read more.
For we lie in the dirt, with our bellies pressed to the ground. Rise up and help us! Rescue us because of your loyal love!

I asked, "Will the Lord reject me forever? Will he never again show me his favor? Has his loyal love disappeared forever? Has his promise failed forever? Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has his anger stifled his compassion?"

O Lord God, invincible warrior! How long will you remain angry at your people while they pray to you? You have given them tears as food; you have made them drink tears by the measure. You have made our neighbors dislike us, and our enemies insult us.

You place me in the lowest regions of the pit, in the dark places, in the watery depths. Your anger bears down on me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. (Selah) You cause those who know me to keep their distance; you make me an appalling sight to them. I am trapped and cannot get free.read more.
My eyes grow weak because of oppression. I call out to you, O Lord, all day long; I spread out my hands in prayer to you.

How long, Lord, must I cry for help? But you do not listen! I call out to you, "Violence!" But you do not intervene! Why do you force me to witness injustice? Why do you put up with wrongdoing? Destruction and violence confront me; conflict is present and one must endure strife.

But Abram said, "O sovereign Lord, what will you give me since I continue to be childless, and my heir is Eliezer of Damascus?" Abram added, "Since you have not given me a descendant, then look, one born in my house will be my heir!" But look, the word of the Lord came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but instead a son who comes from your own body will be your heir."read more.
The Lord took him outside and said, "Gaze into the sky and count the stars -- if you are able to count them!" Then he said to him, "So will your descendants be."

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh, for compelled by my strong hand he will release them, and by my strong hand he will drive them out of his land." God spoke to Moses and said to him, "I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name 'the Lord' I was not known to them.read more.
I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they were living as resident foreigners. I have also heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant. Therefore, tell the Israelites, 'I am the Lord. I will bring you out from your enslavement to the Egyptians, I will rescue you from the hard labor they impose, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you to myself for a people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from your enslavement to the Egyptians. I will bring you to the land I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob -- and I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord!'"

Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, including a detailed account of how he killed all the prophets with the sword. Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah with this warning, "May the gods judge me severely if by this time tomorrow I do not take your life as you did theirs!" Elijah was afraid, so he got up and fled for his life to Beer Sheba in Judah. He left his servant there,read more.
while he went a day's journey into the desert. He went and sat down under a shrub and asked the Lord to take his life: "I've had enough! Now, O Lord, take my life. After all, I'm no better than my ancestors." He stretched out and fell asleep under the shrub. All of a sudden an angelic messenger touched him and said, "Get up and eat." He looked and right there by his head was a cake baking on hot coals and a jug of water. He ate and drank and then slept some more. The Lord's angelic messenger came back again, touched him, and said, "Get up and eat, for otherwise you won't be able to make the journey." So he got up and ate and drank. That meal gave him the strength to travel forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

Then the Lord answered Job: "Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let the person who accuses God give him an answer!" Then Job answered the Lord:read more.
"Indeed, I am completely unworthy -- how could I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth to silence myself. I have spoken once, but I cannot answer; twice, but I will say no more." Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind: "Get ready for a difficult task like a man. I will question you and you will inform me! Would you indeed annul my justice? Would you declare me guilty so that you might be right? Do you have an arm as powerful as God's, and can you thunder with a voice like his?

Because of this, the Lord said, "You must repent of such words and thoughts! If you do, I will restore you to the privilege of serving me. If you say what is worthwhile instead of what is worthless, I will again allow you to be my spokesman. They must become as you have been. You must not become like them. I will make you as strong as a wall to these people, a fortified wall of bronze. They will attack you, but they will not be able to overcome you. For I will be with you to rescue you and deliver you," says the Lord. "I will deliver you from the power of the wicked. I will free you from the clutches of violent people."

"Look at the nations and pay attention! You will be shocked and amazed! For I will do something in your lifetime that you will not believe even though you are forewarned. Look, I am about to empower the Babylonians, that ruthless and greedy nation. They sweep across the surface of the earth, seizing dwelling places that do not belong to them. They are frightening and terrifying; they decide for themselves what is right.read more.
Their horses are faster than leopards and more alert than wolves in the desert. Their horses gallop, their horses come a great distance; like a vulture they swoop down quickly to devour their prey. All of them intend to do violence; every face is determined. They take prisoners as easily as one scoops up sand. They mock kings and laugh at rulers. They laugh at every fortified city; they build siege ramps and capture them. They sweep by like the wind and pass on. But the one who considers himself a god will be held guilty."