Afflictions and adversities are an inevitable part of the human experience, often serving as a crucible for spiritual growth and reliance on God. Throughout the Bible, prayer is presented as a vital response to these challenges, offering believers a means to seek divine intervention, comfort, and strength.

Biblical Examples of Prayer in Affliction

1. David's Prayers in the Psalms: King David frequently turned to prayer during times of distress. In Psalm 34:17, he writes, "The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears; He delivers them from all their troubles." David's life, marked by trials such as persecution by Saul and personal failures, exemplifies a heart that seeks God earnestly in prayer.

2. Hannah's Plea for a Child: In 1 Samuel 1, Hannah's deep anguish over her barrenness leads her to fervent prayer. Verse 10 states, "In her bitter distress, Hannah prayed to the LORD and wept with many tears." Her prayer is answered with the birth of Samuel, demonstrating God's attentiveness to the cries of the afflicted.

3. Hezekiah's Prayer for Deliverance: Faced with the threat of the Assyrian army, King Hezekiah turns to prayer. In 2 Kings 19:15-19, he seeks God's deliverance, acknowledging His sovereignty and power. The LORD responds by delivering Judah, showcasing the efficacy of prayer in dire circumstances.

4. Paul's Thorn in the Flesh: The Apostle Paul speaks of a "thorn in the flesh" in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, a source of great affliction. He prays for its removal, but God responds, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness" (v. 9). Paul's experience highlights the transformative power of prayer, leading to a deeper understanding of God's grace.

Theological Insights on Prayer in Adversity

Prayer during afflictions is not merely a request for relief but an act of faith and submission to God's will. It acknowledges human limitations and God's omnipotence. James 5:13 encourages believers, "Is any one of you suffering? He should pray." This directive underscores prayer as a primary recourse in times of trouble.

The Role of the Holy Spirit

Romans 8:26-27 speaks to the role of the Holy Spirit in aiding believers in prayer during afflictions: "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words." The Spirit's intercession ensures that even when words fail, our prayers align with God's will.

Encouragement to Persevere in Prayer

The Bible encourages perseverance in prayer, especially during trials. Jesus' parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8 illustrates the importance of persistent prayer, teaching that God, unlike the unjust judge, is eager to respond to His children's cries.

Conclusion

While afflictions and adversities are challenging, they provide an opportunity for believers to deepen their relationship with God through prayer. The biblical narrative consistently affirms that God hears and responds to the prayers of the afflicted, offering hope, strength, and deliverance in His perfect timing.Genesis 32:11
Deliver me, I pray you, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children.
Nave's Topical Index

Genesis 43:14
And God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.
Nave's Topical Index

Exodus 17:4
And Moses cried to the LORD, saying, What shall I do to this people? they be almost ready to stone me.
Nave's Topical Index

Numbers 20:16
And when we cried to the LORD, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and has brought us forth out of Egypt: and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of your border:
Nave's Topical Index

1 Samuel 1:10,11
And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the LORD, and wept sore.
Nave's Topical Index

2 Samuel 12:22
And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether GOD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?
Nave's Topical Index

2 Samuel 15:31
And one told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, O LORD, I pray you, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.
Nave's Topical Index

2 Samuel 22:7
In my distress I called on the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears.
Nave's Topical Index

1 Kings 8:36-50
Then hear you in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, and of your people Israel, that you teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain on your land, which you have given to your people for an inheritance.
Nave's Topical Index

2 Kings 19:16,19
LORD, bow down your ear, and hear: open, LORD, your eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which has sent him to reproach the living God.
Nave's Topical Index

1 Chronicles 5:20
And they were helped against them, and the Hagarites were delivered into their hand, and all that were with them: for they cried to God in the battle, and he was entreated of them; because they put their trust in him.
Nave's Topical Index

2 Chronicles 6:24-39
And if your people Israel be put to the worse before the enemy, because they have sinned against you; and shall return and confess your name, and pray and make supplication before you in this house;
Nave's Topical Index

2 Chronicles 14:11
And Asa cried to the LORD his God, and said, LORD, it is nothing with you to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O LORD our God; for we rest on you, and in your name we go against this multitude. O LORD, you are our God; let no man prevail against you.
Nave's Topical Index

2 Chronicles 20:4-13
And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help of the LORD: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD.
Nave's Topical Index

2 Chronicles 33:12,13
And when he was in affliction, he sought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,
Nave's Topical Index

Nehemiah 4:4,5,9
Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach on their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity:
Nave's Topical Index

Nehemiah 6:9,14
For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.
Nave's Topical Index

Nehemiah 9:32
Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keep covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before you, that has come on us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria to this day.
Nave's Topical Index

Job 10:2,9,15
I will say to God, Do not condemn me; show me why you contend with me.
Nave's Topical Index

Job 13:21
Withdraw your hand far from me: and let not your dread make me afraid.
Nave's Topical Index

Job 16:20
My friends scorn me: but my eye pours out tears to God.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 3:1,2,7
Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 4:1
Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: you have enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 5:8
Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before my face.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 6:1-7
O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, neither chasten me in your hot displeasure.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 7:1,2,6,7
O LORD my God, in you do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me:
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 9:13,14
Have mercy on me, O LORD; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, you that lift me up from the gates of death:
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 10:1,12-15
Why stand you afar off, O LORD? why hide you yourself in times of trouble?
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 13:1-4
How long will you forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long will you hide your face from me?
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 16:1
Preserve me, O God: for in you do I put my trust.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 17:1,2,6-9,13,14
Hear the right, O LORD, attend to my cry, give ear to my prayer, that goes not out of feigned lips.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 20:1,2
The LORD hear you in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend you;
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 22:1-21
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 25:2,16-19,22
O my God, I trust in you: let me not be ashamed, let not my enemies triumph over me.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 27:11,12
Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of my enemies.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 28:1
To you will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if you be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 30:9,10
What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise you? shall it declare your truth?
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 31:1-4,14-18
In you, O LORD, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in your righteousness.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 35:1-3,17,19,22,23,25
Plead my cause, O LORD, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 38:1-22
O lord, rebuke me not in your wrath: neither chasten me in your hot displeasure.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 39:10,12,13
Remove your stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of your hand.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 40:13,17
Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 42:9
I will say to God my rock, Why have you forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 43:1-5
Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 44:4,23-26
You are my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 50:15
And call on me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 54:1-3
Save me, O God, by your name, and judge me by your strength.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 55:1-17
Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not yourself from my supplication.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 56:1-13
Be merciful to me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresses me.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 57:1,2
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me: for my soul trusts in you: yes, in the shadow of your wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be over.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 59:1-17
Deliver me from my enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up against me.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 60:1-3,11
O God, you have cast us off, you have scattered us, you have been displeased; O turn yourself to us again.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 61:1,2
Hear my cry, O God; attend to my prayer.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 64:1,2
Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 69:1-36
Save me, O God; for the waters are come in to my soul.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 70:1,2
MAKE HASTE, O GOD, TO DELIVER ME; MAKE HASTE TO HELP ME, O LORD.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 71:1,2,4,9,12
In you, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 74:1,3,10,11,19,21-23
O God, why have you cast us off for ever? why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 77:1,2,7-9
I cried to God with my voice, even to God with my voice; and he gave ear to me.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 79:1,5,8,9,11
O God, the heathen are come into your inheritance; your holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 80:1,3-5,14
Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you that lead Joseph like a flock; you that dwell between the cherubim, shine forth.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 83:1-18
Keep not you silence, O God: hold not your peace, and be not still, O God.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 85:5-7
Will you be angry with us for ever? will you draw out your anger to all generations?
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 86:1-17
Bow down your ear, O LORD, hear me: for I am poor and needy.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 88:9-14
My eye mourns by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily on you, I have stretched out my hands to you.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 89:39-51
You have made void the covenant of your servant: you have profaned his crown by casting it to the ground.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 90:15
Make us glad according to the days wherein you have afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 94:1-23
O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongs; O God, to whom vengeance belongs, show yourself.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 102:2,24
Hide not your face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline your ear to me: in the day when I call answer me speedily.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 106:47
Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks to your holy name, and to triumph in your praise.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 108:6,12
That your beloved may be delivered: save with your right hand, and answer me.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 109:1-31
Hold not your peace, O God of my praise;
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 116:4
Then called I on the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech you, deliver my soul.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 119:22,28,39,41,42,76,77,82,84, 107,121-123,134,145-149,153,154,170,173
Remove from me reproach and contempt; for I have kept your testimonies.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 120:2
Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 123:3,4
Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy on us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 126:4
Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 130:1-8
Out of the depths have I cried to you, O LORD.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 140:1-13
Deliver me, O LORD, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man;
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 141:1-10
Lord, I cry to you: make haste to me; give ear to my voice, when I cry to you.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 142:1,2,5-7
I cried to the LORD with my voice; with my voice to the LORD did I make my supplication.
Nave's Topical Index

Psalm 143:1-12
Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications: in your faithfulness answer me, and in your righteousness.
Nave's Topical Index

Isaiah 33:2
O LORD, be gracious to us; we have waited for you: be you their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.
Nave's Topical Index

Isaiah 38:2,3,14-19
Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the LORD,
Nave's Topical Index

Isaiah 51:9
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Are you not it that has cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?
Nave's Topical Index

Isaiah 63:15-17
Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory: where is your zeal and your strength, the sounding of your bowels and of your mercies toward me? are they restrained?
Nave's Topical Index

Isaiah 64:1,9-12
Oh that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might flow down at your presence,
Nave's Topical Index

Jeremiah 10:24
O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.
Nave's Topical Index

Jeremiah 14:8,9,19-21
O the hope of Israel, the savior thereof in time of trouble, why should you be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turns aside to tarry for a night?
Nave's Topical Index

Jeremiah 15:15
O LORD, you know: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in your long-suffering: know that for your sake I have suffered rebuke.
Nave's Topical Index

Jeremiah 16:19
O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come to you from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.
Nave's Topical Index

Jeremiah 17:17,18
Be not a terror to me: you are my hope in the day of evil.
Nave's Topical Index

Jeremiah 18:19
Give heed to me, O LORD, and listen to the voice of them that contend with me.
Nave's Topical Index

Jeremiah 27:8
And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, said the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.
Nave's Topical Index

Jeremiah 32:16-25
Now when I had delivered the evidence of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the LORD, saying,
Nave's Topical Index

Lamentations 1:9-11,20
Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembers not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy has magnified himself.
Nave's Topical Index

Lamentations 2:18,19
Their heart cried to the LORD, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give yourself no rest; let not the apple of your eye cease.
Nave's Topical Index

Lamentations 5:1,16,17,19-22
Remember, O LORD, what is come on us: consider, and behold our reproach.
Nave's Topical Index

Daniel 6:10
Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled on his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.
Nave's Topical Index

Joel 1:19
O LORD, to you will I cry: for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field.
Nave's Topical Index

Jonah 1:14
Why they cried to the LORD, and said, We beseech you, O LORD, we beseech you, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood: for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.
Nave's Topical Index

Jonah 2:1-10
Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God out of the fish's belly,
Nave's Topical Index

Habakkuk 1:12,13
Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, you have ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, you have established them for correction.
Nave's Topical Index

Matthew 8:25
And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish.
Nave's Topical Index

Matthew 14:30
But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
Nave's Topical Index

Matthew 15:22-28
And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried to him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, you son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
Nave's Topical Index

Matthew 26:39,42,44
And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as you will.
Nave's Topical Index

Matthew 27:46
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Nave's Topical Index

Mark 14:36
And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible to you; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what you will.
Nave's Topical Index

Mark 15:34
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Nave's Topical Index

Luke 18:1
And he spoke a parable to them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
Nave's Topical Index

Luke 22:42
Saying, Father, if you be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but yours, be done.
Nave's Topical Index

Luke 23:46
And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
Nave's Topical Index

John 11:3
Therefore his sisters sent to him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.
Nave's Topical Index

<

Temptations and Trials.
... seculars by temporal afflictions and adversities, so He ... and good Christians aver,
incessant afflictions are necessary ... or of producing acts in prayer need not ...
/.../de caussade/abandonment to divine providence/v temptations and trials.htm

What and Whence are These?
... glory, amid the afflictions, and adversities, and catastrophes ... Tribulations abounded
and afflictions were multiplied to the ... throne of God in prayer, a patience ...
/.../spurgeon/spurgeons sermons volume 18 1872/what and whence are these.htm

Fruits and the Two Works.
... Amid adversities, afflictions, persecutions, temptations and ... temptations,
discouragements, afflictions, imprisonments, persecutions ... in earnest prayer for more ...
//christianbookshelf.org/orr/the gospel day /chapter vi fruits and the.htm

Lessons.
... a brother evidently made and born for their adversities? ... with us, and Jesus for us,
in all our afflictions. ... the message must be taken, the prayer must ascend! ...
//christianbookshelf.org/macduff/memories of bethany/iii lessons.htm

Christian Behavior
... is confirmed, and may his concluding and fervent prayer be answered ... that they have
run through so many trials, afflictions, and adversities, even because ...
/.../bunyan/the works of john bunyan volumes 1-3/christian behavior.htm

The Bereavements of the Christian Home. [A]
... with his mother, offering up our prayer, Whate'er ... but meekly submit to the providential
afflictions of our ... We should remember that all the adversities of life ...
/.../philips/the christian home/chapter xxvi the bereavements of.htm

Hail, Jesus;
... whereby I may pity other men's afflictions, and may ... and tribulations I may have recourse
unto Thee by prayer; ... honour of Thy name, I may not fly adversities,. ...
/.../baker/holy wisdom or directions for the prayer of contemplation/hail jesus.htm

The Third Book
... no man should be moved by these afflictions; for you ... who are fighting for the sake
of enduring all adversities? ... if he forces himself to say a prayer for his ...
//christianbookshelf.org/salvian/on the government of god/the third book.htm

Whither Goest Thou?
... that feeling; breathe it into His ear in prayer. ... appoints the weight and number of
all our adversities. ... Since every trial comes from God, afflictions are no ...
/.../spurgeon/spurgeons sermons volume 35 1889/whither goest thou.htm

The Christian Honoring God by his Dying Behavior.
... than I am pressed by the load of these afflictions ? ... the souls of his children in
alt their adversities," (Psa.31 ... affections now, and lay up one prayer more for ...
/.../chapter xxx the christian honoring.htm

What does the Bible say about pandemic diseases/sicknesses? | GotQuestions.org

What does the Bible say about dissociative identity disorder? | GotQuestions.org

How can I recover from heartbreak / a broken heart? | GotQuestions.org

Bible Concordance • Bible Dictionary • Bible Encyclopedia • Topical Bible • Bible Thesuarus