by Joe Putnam | 119 Comments

The morning is the best time to spend in the Lord’s presence by reading His Word. It’s also an excellent time to begin the day by fellowshipping with the Lord in prayer.

But sometimes it can be difficult to know what to pray. Should you pray for yourself, for your family, or for your friends? How should you start? Should you pray the same prayers or try something new? Should you pray something from the Bible or come up with something on your own?

The answers to these questions depend on our personal experience and the Lord’s leading. However, there are some short morning prayers we can pray to begin each day by contacting the Lord. Whether we decide to pray one or all of these prayers, each of them can help us to simplify our time with the Lord and to begin our day by contacting Him.

Prayer #1: “Oh, Lord Jesus.”

One of the first ways we can pray is simply to call on the Lord’s name. As soon as we get out of bed, we can breathe in the Lord by calling, “Oh, Lord Jesus.”

This is good way to begin the day by contacting the Lord. What better way is there to touch our wonderful Lord than by calling on His name? When we call, we get the person of the name, and we begin to be revived and refreshed. We can do this as soon as we wake up, and we can continue as we get ready for our day.

Prayer #2: “Lord Jesus, I love you.”

The next thing we can say to the Lord is, “Lord Jesus, I love you.” It’s good to begin the day by telling the Lord that we love Him. Our goal, based on Revelation 2:4, is that He would be our first love and our best love. We can practice this by telling the Lord that we love Him first thing in the morning, and we can continue by telling the Lord that we love Him throughout the day.

Prayer #3: “Lord Jesus, thank you for today.”

Thanking the Lord is an excellent way to start the day. We can tell Him, “Lord Jesus, thank you for today, thank you for my spirit, and thank you that I can pray.” We can also thank Him for many other things. We can thank Him for another day to gain Him and to be found in Him, and we can thank Him for dying for us and for shedding His precious blood for us. No matter what we choose to thank Him for, it’s good to start the day by thanking the Lord.

Prayer #4: “Lord Jesus, wash me in your precious, prevailing, and efficacious blood.”

The next thing we can pray is for the Lord to wash us in His precious, prevailing, and efficacious blood. It’s so marvelous that the Lord died for us and shed His blood for us. Every morning we can freshly apply His blood and ask Him to wash from all of our sins. We can continue by confessing any sins that the Lord brings to our attention. There’s no need to spend all of our time attempting to come up with sins to confess, but we can spend a little time to confess anything that the Lord touches us with related to the previous day or our past.

Prayer #5: “Lord Jesus, I open my being and turn my heart to you.”

After spending some time to confess our sins, we can take a minute to turn our heart to the Lord. We can pray, “Lord Jesus, I open my being and turn my heart to you.” By doing this, we turn away from everything else and turn our heart to the Lord. Second Corinthians 3:16 says, “But whenever the heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” As we turn to the Lord, any veils on our heart are taken away, and we can spend time with the Lord face to face. Second Corinthians 3:18 tells us that in doing so, we behold and reflect like a mirror the glory of the Lord and are transformed into His image from glory to glory.

Prayer #6: “Oh Lord, grant me today’s supply of grace.”

In addition to turning our heart to the Lord, we can ask Him to grant us our daily supply of grace. In Matthew 6:11 the Lord instructs us to pray for our daily bread. We can pray this by asking the Lord for our daily supply of grace. We can begin the day by asking Him for that day’s portion of grace, and the Lord will respond by supplying us with more of His grace and more of Himself.

Prayer #7: “Oh Lord, grant me a normal day of growing in life.”

Each day we also want to grow in life. The Lord’s goal is that we would be brought on to maturity and full sonship. (See these verses for more on maturity and growing in life: 1 Corinthians 3:7, 14:20, and 16:13; Ephesians 4:13; Philippians 3:15; and Hebrews 5:14).

We don’t want to remain the same but want to grow in the divine life and be brought on to maturity. However, this isn’t something that happens miraculously or overnight. It’s something that happens little by little and day by day. An infant doesn’t become an adult overnight. They grow a little bit every day by eating milk, baby food, and eventually solid food. Over time, each infant grows to be a full-grown person. Thus, every morning we can pray, “Lord, grant me a normal day of growing in life. Cause me to grow in your life today.”

Pray #8: “Oh Lord, strengthen me with power through your spirit into the inner man.”

The apostle Paul prays in Ephesians 3:16 that God the Father would grant us “according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man.” Paul’s prayer here shows that God’s desire is that we would be strengthened with power through the Spirit into the inner man, our human spirit. We can cooperate with this desire by asking the Lord every day to strengthen us with power through His Spirit into the inner man.

Prayer #9: “Oh Lord, make your home in my heart through faith.”

The apostle Paul also prays in Ephesians 3:17-19 “that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth are and to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the full knowledge of God.” Thus, we can pray every morning, “Lord, make your home in my heart through faith today. I open my heart to you. Make my heart your home a little more today. Dear Lord, make your home in every room of my heart.”

Prayer #10: “Oh Lord, keep me from temptation and from the evil one.”

In Matthew 6:13, the Lord instructs us to pray that we would not be brought into temptation but would be delivered from the evil one. We may think that we can withstand sin, but really, we need the Lord’s covering that He would keep us from temptation and deliver us from the evil one. We are weak and shouldn’t put any trust in ourselves. Instead, we should pray that the Lord would deliver us from temptation and from the evil one.

Wrap-up

As you can see, these are ten excellent short morning prayers we can pray every morning. Whether you decide to pray one, a few, or all of them, I hope this post will help you spend time in prayer with the Lord. May we all go on to pursue Christ, to know Him, and to be found in Him day by day and morning by morning.

What is your experience with praying short prayers to the Lord in the morning? Do you have any prayers you would add to this list? Are you planning to pray some of these prayers during your morning time with the Lord? Leave a comment so we can discuss and have further fellowship.

For a further appreciation of this topic, you may also enjoy reading “How to Spend Time with the Lord in the Morning” on the Bibles for America blog.

Photo credit: Jake Givens at Unsplash