9 Powerful Prayers for Your Inner Circle
I watch our baby boy sleep on the other side of the room while rain streams down the sliding glass door. His eyelids flutter as he dreams, and I ask God to lead me as I aim to pray powerful prayers for this little one’s life.
And a vital part of every person’s calling is praying for the people who are closest to us.
Today, we’ll explore nine powerful prayers for our inner circles. I’ll also encourage you to find a time of day to devote exclusively to intercessory prayers by guiding you in making a prayer list.
Be sure to read to the end of today’s post for a free devotional eBook to help you pray in alignment with God’s will.
Powerful Prayers for Your Inner Circle
Let’s begin with some powerful prayers for those closest to us.
9 Powerful Prayers That Align With God’s Will
1. Pray for your loved ones to come to saving faith in Christ.
Many of us have loved ones who do not know Jesus.
God wants all people to turn to Jesus for salvation.
2 Peter 3:9 reads, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (ESV).
Here is a prayer for the salvation of those you love:
“Father, thank you for loving us so much that you sent your Son to die in our place. We cannot fathom this great love. Today, I pray for _____(insert the name of your loved one). I pray that you will draw his/her heart to you. Create a longing only you can fulfill that leads to salvation through Christ.”
2. Pray for your loved ones to find hope in Christ and not in external circumstances.
Every day, I pray my loved ones will learn to find their hope in Jesus and not merely in their circumstances.
Let’s pray for our loved ones to lean into the One who will never forsake them.
Here is a biblical prayer based on the promise found in Deuteronomy 31:6, which reads, “The Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.”
“Lord God, thank you for caring for my loved ones even more than I care for them. I pray they will learn to put their hope in you instead of putting their hope in their circumstances. Thank you for promising never to leave them or forsake them. I pray that your presence will become their living hope even when life is hard.”
3. Pray for your loved ones to find their joy and strength in the Lord.
I want my loved ones to place their hope in the God who is always with them. I also want them to find their joy and strength in him.
Let’s pray for our loved ones to find their strength in the joy of the Lord. Pray they will not rely on their own strength as they go about life. Pray they will find deep joy in the Lord, joy that goes beyond circumstantial happiness.
This prayer is from Nehemiah 8:10: “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”
“Father God, thank you for being our source of joy, hope, and strength. I pray that my loved ones will learn to experience the joy you feel when they draw near to you. Show them how to lean into this joy and find strength from you. Reveal yourself to them as their ever-present source of help, support, and strength.”
4. Pray for them to have the strength to stand against temptation.
When I pray for my loved ones to stand against temptation, I claim the promise in this powerful Scripture: “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
Here is a prayer based on this verse:
“Lord God, thank you for the promise that you will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear. I pray that my loved ones will turn to you when they feel tempted. Show them that there is no condemnation in Christ and lead them to avoid temptation and follow you in obedience.”
5. Pray that God will provide like-minded friends to encourage your loved ones in their faith.
As the Word reminds us, bad company corrupts good character. We imitate those with whom we spend time. Pray that God will provide godly friends for your loved ones in every stage of life.
Here is a prayer.
“Lord God, thank you for caring for our hearts. I ask you to surround my loved ones with godly friends throughout every stage of life. Help them to find other believers who will point them to you and encourage them in their faith. Build them up through these relationships and shape them to look more like you.”
More Powerful Prayers for Your Inner Circle
6. Pray for the light of Christ to shine through your loved ones.
Matthew 5:14 reads, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”
Pray for others to be drawn into the love of Christ through the light shining through the people you care about.
Here is a prayer.
“Lord God, thank you for pouring your love and light through us. We want to carry your light into this dark world. Please fill my loved ones with your light and love, enabling them to be vessels of healing and transformation in this world. Draw the broken into your love through the light they carry.”
7. Pray for God align the hearts of your loved ones with his heart.
One of my primary prayers over the past year has been asking God to align my heart with his heart.
This prayer has radically changed my perspective on many situations and relationships. The prayer of alignment is a prayer God answers.
Matthew 5:8 reads, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
Here is a prayer for alignment based on this verse:
“Father, please give my loved ones pure hearts. Bring them into alignment with you in every way, casting off sin and desiring what you desire. Give them your vision for the world around them. Heal their wounds. Align them with your calling to love others and love you.”
8. Pray for your loved ones to find their identities in Christ alone.
As you pray these powerful prayers, one of the most important prayers involves their identities as God’s dearly loved children.
Ask God to help your loved ones find their worth in God’s love for them. Pray for freedom from the desires to conform to the world, prove themselves to others, or live from achievement-based identities.
Here is a prayer.
“Dear God, thank you for demonstrating your love to us through the ultimate act of love: allowing your precious Child to die in our place. I cannot imagine allowing my child to die for someone else. As I focus on this, I am overwhelmed by your love for me. I pray that my loved ones will grasp this love and be transformed by it as well. Help them understand the one part of their identities that can never change: They will always be deeply loved by you.”
9. Ask God to reveal himself as they draw near to him.
God promises that when we draw near to him, he draws near to us (James 4:8). We can pray that our loved ones will experience the reality of his comforting presence. When we encounter the Living God, we are changed from the inside out.
Here is a prayer to pray.
“Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the promise that when we draw near to you, you draw near to us. I pray my loved ones will experience this reality again and again in their lives. Please reveal yourself to them. Be their ongoing source of support and the friend who never leaves them. I ask that they will experience your love and comfort in tangible ways as you build their faith.”
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Let’s now apply these powerful prayers as we remind ourselves of the most important part of our calling.
An Application of These Powerful Prayers
I’ve been reminding myself that the quiet parts of my calling are some of the most important parts.
As the water runs back to the earth outside the window, I remind myself to embrace the season of parenting little ones.
I’m contemplating my calling when the truth falls with the rain. A quiet thought whispers, Don’t overlook the most important part of your calling.
These words come like breath from heaven, and something stirs within me.
The Most Important Part of Your Calling
Living present in every moment, embracing teachable opportunities woven into ordinary days, and loving the people in front of me are parts of my life that matter deeply. Meanwhile, there’s a part of my calling that I often overlook: What if the most important part of any given calling isn’t the process of living it out, but the process of encountering God in the middle of it?
And this is the crux of encountering God in my calling: I’ll fail to encounter God if I fail to live out my calling prayerfully.
I can go through the motions, love others in my own strength, infuse life with sporadic prayers for those I have been called to serve, and do it all relatively well. I can embrace moments and make gratitude lists, and these disciplines are all good. They matter.
Pray Powerful Prayers as You Live out Your Calling
But if I overlook the importance of focused prayer as I pour out my life, I might just miss the most important part of my calling. 
I’ve been learning to live on two levels: one attuned to the voice of the Father and one engaged with the world around me.
Meanwhile, I lack this one discipline: making time to pray powerful prayers with a fervent focus for those within my sphere of influence.
How to Be a Prayer Warrior
I want to be a prayer warrior, and I consider what it might look like:
It’s the mother who makes sure to pray for her children every single day. She buys a journaling Bible and writes Spirit-led prayers in the margins of every page for each of her children. She prays for breakthroughs for her teenagers, God encounters for her grown children, or the future of her newborn.
It’s the teacher who comes to the classroom ten minutes early every morning to pray over the seats that will soon be filled by young bodies. She prays for faces and names as they come to mind. She breaks down walls and prays for the opening of the gates of heaven.
It’s the public servant who prays for the people who will walk through her aisle, sit at her table, pass by her desk, or sit across the little office with the framed photos on the walls. She prays for the anointing of the Lord, the movement of the Spirit of freedom, and encounters with Jesus in this space where she has been called to serve.
Powerful Prayers for Your Sphere of Influence
It’s the wife who won’t give up praying for her husband, even though he shows no interest in the things of God.
It’s the friend who keeps reaching out, who won’t stop praying for that childhood friend who is lost and searching.
I ask myself as the rain streams down: Are you really laboring in prayer for those you are called to love?
Or are you overlooking the most important part of your calling?
Because praying for the people God has placed in your path breaks captives free. It breaks up fallow ground. It makes a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
I commit to being a woman of passionate prayer for my children as the little one sleeps and heaven pours down all around me. Ultimately, this kind of prayer holds the power to change lives, and my life will be changed as well.
As I encounter the heart of the Father for my kids, I come to know him more. I carry his love upon me in a more evident way. And with the rain on a humid summer day, the gates of heaven might just open wide.
Pray Powerful Prayers Using a Prayer List
One tool I use to help me stay focused in prayer is a prayer list.
Creating updated prayer lists helps me be intentional about praying for and encouraging the people I care about.
My prayer list is simply a piece of paper with the names of people for whom I want to pray.
How to Make a Prayer List
Here are step-by-step instructions for creating a prayer list from scratch. You can also download my free prayer list template below, print it out, and personalize it.
The goal of the prayer list is to create seven different lists of names of people for whom you can pray (one list for each day of the week).
We will also create a “Daily” heading and a “Draw Near” heading. I’ll explain these headings below.
1. Format the prayer list using the days of the week as headings.
Using different colors of markers, I write the names of the days of the week across the top of a piece of paper (the longer side of the paper). Under these headings, I will write the names of different people in my life.
2. Add a “Daily” heading to the list.
I also create a “Daily” heading at the top of the page and list the people for whom I will daily pray, including my husband, children, and those closest to me.
3. Add a “Draw Near” heading to the list.
The Draw Near heading is a visual reminder of the disciplines you want to use as you seek God for yourself. It reminds you that God wants you to seek him on behalf of others, and he also wants you to seek his face.
Under my Draw Near heading, my list reminds me of three prayer postures. It is a list of three simple words: Rest, Confess, Thank.
Every morning, before I pray for the people on my list, I take a moment to rest with God. I imagine him smiling over me and soak in his love.
Next, I ask him to search my heart and show me any sins from the previous 24 hours. I confess anything that comes to mind to him and ask him to help me turn away from sin and turn toward him in repentance.
Before I begin praying for the names on my list, I thank him for several gifts: anything that comes to mind.
4. Prayerfully add a list of names under each heading.
Under each day of the week, I create a color-coded group of names.
Each day receives a group of people from a different area of my life.
Here are some examples of groups of people: my family members, my husband’s family members, neighbors, coworkers, ministry partners, church leadership, my kids’ friends and their families, the kids I coach, kids’ teachers and administration, friends from past seasons, current friends, community and national leaders.
Again, add these names prayerfully. Don’t add names out of obligation. Ask God to guide you.
I aim to write between five and ten names under each heading. You could scale down and make this even smaller, adding only one or two names if you feel led.
5. Post the prayer list where you will see it.
I hang my list where I will see it daily. For me, this is the wall beside the elliptical where I work out most mornings. I spend five to ten minutes praying over the names on the list, based on the day of the week, every morning.
Let’s now talk about how to use the list.
How to Use the Prayer List
After making my first prayer list, for a few years, praying over the names on the list was a cumbersome task. I labored long over each name and wracked my brain over how I should pray.
As time passed, the Lord led me to simply imagine lifting each person on the list before his heavenly throne.
He led me to “place the person in his presence” and wait to see if he impressed anything on my heart. Sometimes, nothing came to me, and I simply lifted the person into the presence of God for a fraction of a minute.
At other times, a thought floated through my mind about sending a message to the friend and offering an encouraging word or asking how I might pray.
Commune With God in Times of Intercessory Prayer
This is how I pray over the names on my list daily now. I lift each of the day’s names into the presence of God and wait to see if I sense a nudge to reach out or pray a more specific prayer.
There are times when I sense a nudge to text a Bible verse or write an email. Sometimes, the friend responds that my message came at a surprisingly appropriate time. At other times, nothing surprising happens and I simply enjoy an opportunity to bless someone else.
The Lord has placed certain people within your sphere of influence for a reason and a purpose. Taking time to pray for these people holds the potential to break up the hard ground of resistant hearts and prepare these people to encounter Jesus in deeper ways.
Also, remember to use the Draw Near heading to seek God for yourself. I draw near to God by resting with him, confessing sins, and thanking him for his blessings.
Here are some more activities that could help you draw near to God: Worship in song; name his attributes; be still in his presence; speak the Word; pray the Word; write the Word.
If these tips on how to make a prayer list blessed you, I invite you to explore our devotionals and library of free devotional eBooks below. Again, you’ll find your template prayer list at the end of today’s post. Be blessed as you draw near to God!
Calling All Parents and Grandparents!
As the parent of two sons and a daughter, I have a heart for helping parents develop deeper relationships with their children and with God. Our kids, ages 6, 11, and 15, share this vision. They have helped me write three family devotionals for parents or older relatives to read with the children and teens they love. You can find all three books here or read more below.
Attention All Boy Moms (and Dads)!
God’s Warrior: Devotions for Boys Who Want to Grow in Courage and Strength helps young boys, ages 5-13, learn what it means to trust God and become strong warriors for his kingdom. Now, more than ever, our world needs men who are willing to boldly carry God’s love into the world. I wrote this boys’ devotional book with our two young sons, Aiden and Caleb, ages six and eleven! You’ll enjoy their honesty as we teach boys how to be strong warriors for the Lord. Find this life-changing devotional book here.
Mother-Daughter Devotionals by a Mom and Daughter
Girl to Girl: 60 Mother-Daughter Devotions for a Closer Relationship and Deeper Faith is written for girls ages 7-12. It includes 60 devotions with Scripture, conversation starters, and a shared journaling section for moms and daughters after each devotion. I wrote this book with the help of our daughter, Bekah, when she was eleven. Find this one-of-a-kind shared devotional here.
Heart to Heart: A Mother-Daughter Devotional With 50 Devotions for Teen Girls is for teenage girls ages 13-20. It includes 50 devotions, each with a shared journaling section to help moms and daughters connect through writing. This is a great book for moms who want to communicate about awkward topics—like dating, sexuality, peer pressure, and more—but don’t know where to start. Bekah and I will help you right here.
Find Our Family Devotionals Here
Find all three books right here. They are also free on the Kindle Unlimited plan, which you can enjoy with a free three-month trial! These books make great gifts, and you don’t need to be the parent of young children to read them. Share them with your grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or the young ones you love.
Download Your Prayer List Template Here
If you’re reading to start praying, download your free template here! This template does not have a “Draw Near” list, as I added this important step later. I encourage you to use the top margin to remind yourself to draw near to God for yourself.
A Free Devotional Guide to Help You to Pray Powerful Prayers:
Do you want to be more deliberate in the way you interact with the people God has put in your life? Do you want to carry Christ to the world around you and be more passionate as you pray for others?
Check out my online devotional Change Your World through Prayer. You will find prayer lists, Bible-based prayer guides, and fresh ideas to help you pray for the people you care about. This is a practical tool to help you fall more deeply in love with Jesus as you pray.
Click here, and I will send this free resource to your email inbox. You can also find a full library of free devotionals and eBooks to help you draw near to God right here. Be blessed as you seek the Lord in prayer. 
