Prayers of Billy Graham

William Franklin Graham Jr. (November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) was an American evangelist, a prominent evangelical Christian figure, and an ordained Southern Baptist minister who became well known internationally in the late 1940s. One of his biographers has placed him “among the most influential Christian leaders” of the 20th century.

As a preacher, he held large indoor and outdoor rallies with sermons that were broadcast on radio and television; some were still being re-broadcast into the 21st century. In his six decades on television, Graham hosted annual “Crusades”, evangelistic campaigns that ran from 1947 until his retirement in 2005. In addition to his religious aims, he helped shape the worldview of a huge number of people who came from different backgrounds, leading them to find a relationship between the Bible and contemporary secular viewpoints.

We have collected some of the best prayers of Billy Graham to use in request to God. May these prayers for safety bring you comfort and peace of mind. May these prayers for strength encourage your spirit and strengthen your faith.

Don’t ever hesitate to take to [God] whatever is on your heart. He already knows it anyway, but He doesn’t want you to bear its pain or celebrate its joy alone. – Billy Graham

For Our Nation

Our Father and our God, Thou hast said, “Blessed is that nation whose God is the Lord.” We recognize on this historic occasion that we are “a nation under God.” We thank Thee for this torch of faith handed to us by our forefathers. May we never let it be extinguished. Thou alone hast given us our prosperity, our freedom and our power. This faith in God is our heritage and our foundation!

Thou hast warned us in the Scriptures, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” As George Washington reminded us in his farewell address, morality and faith are the pillars of our society. We confess these pillars are being eroded in an increasingly materialistic and permissive society. The whole world is watching to see if the faith of our fathers will stand the trials and tests of the hour. Too long we have neglected Thy word and ignored Thy laws. Too long we have tried to solve our problems without reference to Thee. Too long we have tried to live by bread alone. We have sown to the wind and are now reaping a whirlwind of crime, division, and rebellion.

And now with the wages of our sins staring us in the face, we remember Thy words, “If my people who are called by my Name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Billy Graham, 1969 inaugural prayer

Prayers for the Nation

Our Father and Our God, we praise You for Your goodness to our nation, giving us blessings far beyond what we deserve. Yet we know all is not right with America. We deeply need a moral and spiritual renewal to help us meet the many problems we face. Convict us of sin. Help us to turn to You in repentance and faith. Set our feet on the path of Your righteousness and peace. We pray today for our nation’s leaders. Give them the wisdom to know what is right, and the courage to do it. You have said, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” May this be a new era for America, as we humble ourselves and acknowledge You alone as our Savior and Lord. This we pray in Your holy name, Amen.

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Lord… remind us today that You have shown us what is good in what You require of us; to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. We ask that as a people, we may humble ourselves before You and seek Your will for our lives and for this great nation. Help us in our nation to work as never before to strengthen our families and to give our children hope and a moral foundation for the future. So may our desire be to serve You, and in so doing, serve one another. This we pray in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Billy Graham’s Inaugural Prayer – 1997

Accept the Savior

Our Father and our God, we pray that… we all might be conscious that Thine eye is upon us. If God can see the sparrow fall, if He has the hairs of our head numbered, we know that He watches us, that He loves us, that He cares for us, and we’re told in Thy Word that He cares for us so much that He sent His only begotten Son to the cross to die that we might find forgiveness of our sins. We pray… that Thy Holy Spirit will draw all men unto the Savior, for we ask it in His Name. Amen.

Billy Graham in New York – 1957

A Prayer for the New Year

Our Father and our God, as we stand at the beginning of this new year we confess our need of Your presence and Your guidance as we face the future… We each have our hopes and expectations for the year that is ahead of us—but You alone know what it holds for us, and only You can give us the strength and the wisdom we will need to meet its challenges. So help us to humbly put our hands into Your hand, and to trust You and to seek Your will for our lives during this coming year… And so, our Father, we thank You for the promise and hope of this new year, and we look forward to it with expectancy and faith. This I ask in the name of our Lord and Savior, who by His death and resurrection has given us hope both for this world and the world to come. Amen.

Make Ourselves Right with God

Our Father and our God, we pray that in this period of crisis in our world that the Holy Spirit will use it to remind us of our need of Thee and our relationship with Thee and we pray that tonight if our relationship is not right that we’ll make it right through Jesus Christ our Lord who came to die on the cross because He loved us. For we ask it in His Name. Amen.

Billy Graham in Sacramento, California – 1983

National Day of Prayer

Lord, we are thankful for the abundant blessings You have bestowed on America. Our forefathers looked to You as protector, provider and the promise of hope. But we have wandered far from that firm foundation. May we repent for turning our backs on Your faithfulness. We pray that this great nation will be restored by Your forgiveness. From bondage, You grant freedom. Through Your own sacrifice, You offer salvation. From the state of despair, You offer peace. From the bounties of heaven, You have blessed—not because of our goodness—but by Your grace. You have given us freedom to worship You in spirit and in truth as Your holy Word instructs. May our lives honor You in word and deed. May our nation acknowledge that all good things come from the Father above. Amen.

President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that our nation should set apart a day for national prayer to confess our sins and transgressions in sorrow, ‘Yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon … announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.’ We have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our own hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. … We have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us! It behooves us then … to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness. Help us to pray earnestly for our president and leaders who govern—that they will humble themselves and seek Your guidance so that everything we do will shine the light of Your glory in a darkened world. May our prayers as a people and a nation be heard and blessed for such a time as this. We make this plea in faith, believing in the mighty name of Jesus our Lord.

Franklin Graham on the National Day of Prayer – 2010

Prayer should not be merely an act, but an attitude of life. – Billy Graham

For Courage and Commitment

Our Father and our God, we thank You today for the privilege of coming into Your presence on this historic and solemn occasion.

We thank You for Your gracious hand which has preserved us as a nation. We praise You for the peaceful continuity of government that this Inauguration represents.

We recall that the Bible says, “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it” (Psalm 127: 1, KJV). You also said that to whom much has been given, much shall be required.

We look gratefully to the past and thank You that from the very foundations of America You granted our forefathers courage and wisdom, as they trusted in You. So we ask today that You would inspire us by their example; where there has been failure, forgive us; where there has been progress, confirm; where there has been success, give us humility; and teach us to follow Your instructions more closely as we enter the next century.

Give to all those to whom You have entrusted leadership today a desire to seek Your will and to do it.

Billy Graham, 1997 inaugural prayer

Final Public Prayer for the World

I’ve been praying that we might have a spiritual awakening. I think that becomes possible only as individuals surrender their lives afresh and anew to Christ.

First, we must do everything we can to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Live a life in which we love one another, we help one another, and we live according to His word as Jesus lived.

The Holy Spirit is the one who helps us live that new lifestyle. It’s one of love, gentleness, and patience and all of these things that are the fruits of the Spirit.

You read his Word every day… the Bible. I know it’s very difficult but you need to start somewhere and I suggest you start with the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament and in the Old Testament start with the first verse — “In the Beginning, God.”

Go to your knees and pray until you and God have become intimate friends. I cannot describe to you the joy and the peace he gives as a result of the daily routine that you have.