Orthodox prayers for strength and courage

Prayers for when your own strength runs out and you need God’s, and for courage to face something hard.

Picture: Ivan Shishkin, Oak Grove, 1887

5 prayers and 1 to the saints

When your strength runs out

St Augustine’s prayer for strength

O Lord our God,let us hope in the shadow of Your wings.Protect us and carry us.You will carry us when we are little,and You will carry us until our hair is grey.For when our strength is You, it is strength;when it is our own, it is weakness.

Our good lives with You always.Because we turned away from it,we became twisted.Let us turn back to You now, Lord,so that we are not ruined.For our good lives with You and never fails:that good is You Yourself.

We fell away from You,but we are not afraidof finding no home to come back to.While we were away, our home did not fall:our home is Your eternity.

Traditional wording, 1886

O Lord our God, under the shadow of Thy wings let us hope,defend us, and carry us.Thou wilt carry us both when little,and even to grey hairs wilt Thou carry us;for our firmness, when it is Thou, then is it firmness;but when it is our own, then it is infirmity.

Our good lives always with Thee,from which when we are averted we are perverted.Let us now, O Lord, return, that we be not overturned,because with Thee our good lives without any eclipse,which good Thou Thyself art.

And we need not fear lest we should find no place unto which to returnbecause we fell away from it;for when we were absent, our home—Thy Eternity—fell not.

St Augustine wrote it about AD 400, in his Confessions. He tells God that our strength is strength only when it is God Himself, and that when it is our own, it is weakness.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Latin, with Pilkington’s 1886 translation beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: J. G. Pilkington, The Confessions of St. Augustin, 1886.

Where it comes from, and the Latin

When you feel weak

O God, the strength of all who trust in You

O God, the strength of all who trust in You,listen kindly when we call on You.

Because without You our mortal weakness can do nothing,give us the help of Your grace,so that in keeping Your commandmentswe may please You both in will and in deed.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Traditional wording, 1662

O God, the strength of all them that put their trust in Thee,mercifully accept our prayers;

and because through the weakness of our mortal naturewe can do no good thing without Thee,grant us the help of Thy grace,that in keeping of Thy commandmentswe may please Thee, both in will and deed;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

An old Roman prayer, copied about AD 750, for days when doing what is right feels beyond you. It asks for the help of God’s grace to keep His commandments.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Latin, as H. A. Wilson printed the Old Gelasian book in 1894, with the 1662 Prayer Book’s English beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: The Church of England, The Book of Common Prayer, 1662.

The Prayer Book’s “no good thing” is its own addition. The Latin says that without God our mortal weakness can do nothing.

Where it comes from, and the Latin

For courage

The Lord is my light (Psalm 27)

The LORD is my light and my salvation.Whom shall I fear?The LORD is the stronghold of my life.Of whom shall I be afraid?

When evildoers closed in on me to devour my flesh,my enemies and my foes,it was they who stumbled and fell.

Though an army camps against me,my heart will not fear.Though war rises up against me,even then I will trust.

One thing I have asked of the LORD,and this I will seek:to live in the house of the LORDall the days of my life,to gaze on the beauty of the LORDand to meditate in His temple.

For in the day of troubleHe will hide me in His shelter.He will keep me hidden in the secret place of His tentand lift me high upon a rock.

Hear my voice, O LORD, when I call.Have mercy on me and answer me.

When You said, “Seek My face,”my heart said to You,“Your face, LORD, I will seek.”

Do not hide Your face from me.Do not turn Your servant away in anger.You have been my help.Do not cast me off or forsake me,O God of my salvation.

Even if my father and my mother forsake me,the LORD will take me in.

Teach me Your way, O LORD,and lead me on a level path,because of those who lie in wait for me.

Do not hand me over to the will of my foes,for false witnesses have risen against me,breathing out violence.

I would have lost heartif I had not believed that I would seethe goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

Wait for the LORD.Be strong, and let your heart take courage.Wait for the LORD.

Traditional wording, 1611

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes,came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.

Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear:though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.

One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after;that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life,to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in His temple.

For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion:in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me;He shall set me up upon a rock.

Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice:have mercy also upon me, and answer me.

When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face;my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.

Hide not Thy face far from me; put not Thy servant away in anger:Thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me,O God of my salvation.

When my father and my mother forsake me,then the LORD will take me up.

Teach me Thy way, O LORD,and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.

Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies:for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.

I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORDin the land of the living.

Wait on the LORD: be of good courage,and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

Show the whole prayer

A psalm credited to David that asks, “Whom shall I fear?” even with an army camped against him. It ends by telling the heart to be strong and take courage.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Hebrew (verses 1 to 5, then 7 to 14), with the King James Version beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: The King James translators, The King James Version, 1611.

Where it comes from, and the original

When people want you to give up

Nehemiah’s prayer for strength

They were all trying to frighten us,saying, “Their hands will grow too weak for the work,and it will not be done.”But now, strengthen my hands.

Traditional wording, 1611

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.

Nehemiah’s enemies tried to frighten him into stopping work on the wall of Jerusalem. He turned to God with this short prayer, and the work went on until the wall was finished.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Hebrew, with the King James Version beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: The King James translators, The King James Version, 1611.

Where it comes from, and the original

When you are falling

Prayer of St John of Kronstadt

Lord, Your name is Love:do not turn me away, though I go astray.

Your name is Strength:strengthen me as I grow weak and fall.

Your name is Light:give light to my soul,darkened by worldly passions.

Your name is Peace:bring peace to my troubled soul.

Your name is Mercy:do not stop having mercy on me.

Traditional wording, 1897

Lord! Thy name is Love: do not cast me away, erring as I am!

Thy name is Power: strengthen me, who so often grow weak and fall!

Thy name is Light: enlighten my soul, darkened by earthly passions!

Thy name is Peace: appease my troubled soul!

Thy name is Mercy: do not cease to forgive me!

In a prayer from his diary, the Russian priest St John of Kronstadt gives God five names. Under the name Strength, he asks God to hold him up as he grows weak and falls.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Russian of his diary, with E. E. Goulaeff’s English of 1897 beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: E. E. Goulaeff, My Life in Christ, 1897.

In the last line Goulaeff writes “forgive me”, where the Russian asks God not to stop having mercy.

Where it comes from, and the Russian

To a saint · When you must stand firm

Troparion of the Forty Martyrs

Plain English only: no traditional English wording is given for this prayer

Most honoured martyrs,forty soldiers of Christ, steadfast warriors!For you passed through fire and waterand became fellow citizens of the angels.

With the angels, pray to Christfor those who praise you in faith.

Glory to Him Who gave you strength!Glory to Him Who crowned you!Glory to Him Who through you gives healing to all!

The Forty Martyrs were Roman soldiers who stood all night in a frozen lake at Sebaste rather than deny Christ. Their hymn ends “Glory to Him Who gave you strength!”

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Church Slavonic of the Menaion; no traditional English of this troparion was found. How the wording is made.

Where it comes from, and the Church Slavonic

Scripture for this

²⁹He gives power to the faint and increases the strength of the weak. ³⁰Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall. ³¹But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:29-31 God gives power to the faint. Those who wait upon the LORD renew their strength and mount up with wings like eagles.

¹God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble. ²Therefore we will not fear, though the earth is transformed and the mountains are toppled into the depths of the seas, ³though their waters roar and foam and the mountains quake in the surge. Selah

Psalm 46:1-3 God is our refuge and strength, always there in trouble. So we need not fear, even if the earth gives way.

⁹But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. ¹⁰That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 Christ told Paul that His power is made perfect in weakness, so Paul could say, “When I am weak, then I am strong.”

I can do all things through Christ Who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:13 Paul can do all things through Christ, Who gives him strength.

“Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

Joshua 1:9 God told Joshua to be strong and courageous and not to be afraid, for the LORD his God would be with him wherever he went.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.

Ephesians 6:10 Paul’s last charge to the Ephesians begins, “Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.”

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

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