How to pray for peace within yourself and with others
Deep in our souls, we all want peace, but sometimes it’s so challenging to find in this fallen world of conflict and brokenness that we need to pray for it. This peace prayer can guide you to pray for peace of mind within yourself, as well as for peaceful relationships with God and other people:
“Dear God, I need your help to find peace in my life as I deal with the stress of challenging situations that make me feel angry and worried. Thank you for promising to give me peace if I ask you for it. So I’m turning to you now, God. Please relieve me of the burdens of frustration and exhaustion that I’ve been carrying from trying to find peace in this situation without your help. I’m turning these circumstances [describe them] over to you. I trust you to guide me toward peace as I deal with this from now on. Empower me to do whatever I can to solve the problems I’m facing, to accept what I can’t change, and to let go of trying to control the outcome.
Remind me to remain hopeful that you will use even the worst circumstances in my life to accomplish good purposes when I trust you. I will try my best to trust you day by day, knowing that your power is far greater than any challenge I will ever face. Teach me how to be resilient in the midst of uncertainty and adversity.
Please help me find peace within myself, with other people, and with you, God.
Empower me to find peace within myself by living with authenticity rather than pretense so I won’t be conflicted about who I am. You, my Creator, know me even better than I know myself. Show me how you see me, so I can view myself from an accurate perspective. Give me the courage I need to be honest about who I really am and what I really value. Urge me to let go of efforts to impress other people and simply be myself, with confidence. Encourage me to live my life to please you — regardless of what others think about me — by being true to who you’ve made me to be and living as faithfully as I can from day to day. In the process, I believe that I will find the peace I need within my soul.
Guide me toward peaceful relationships with other people. Show me the specific reasons behind the conflict I’m experiencing with others in my life — from betrayal to rejection — so I can understand what’s at the root of the problem. Help me better understand the difficult people in my life so I can figure out how best to peacefully navigate my relationships with them. Whenever someone I have a broken relationship with is willing to resolve conflict with me, please empower me to take steps to do so, such as pursuing forgiveness and coming up with mutually beneficial solutions to problems. Whenever someone I’m in conflict with is not willing to resolve the issue between us, help me set boundaries of respect and move on with an attitude of peaceful goodwill. Remind me to pray regularly about conflicts between others that I learn about in the news, trusting that my prayers for conflicts around the world will have a positive impact on each situation.
Reach out to help me find peace with you, God, so I can live in harmony with you now and forever as you intend. Bring to my attention any sins in my life that are blocking the intimacy you’d like to have with me. Reassure me of your unconditional love for me, but at the same time, urge me to move closer to you by turning away from my mistakes and toward you. Let me rest in the peace of knowing that you love and accept me completely.
Thank you, my loving and powerful God, for making peace possible in my life. Amen.”
