4 Simple Steps to Strengthen Your Daily Prayer

This article is based on Pastor Adrian Rogers' message, Victorious Prayer.

Discover How Daily Prayer Provides Peace in Every Situation

You can’t do anything better than to learn how to pray.

And yet, when we do pray, too often we really do not expect God to answer the prayer.

But God has said, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3). Our Lord Jesus taught us exactly how to pray in Matthew 6:9-13—and you should notice that Christ’s model prayer ends on a note of victory.

Many of us are looking for a helpful prayer guide to teach us how to pray. Can there be a better way than to learn to pray as Jesus taught us?

Here are four things you need to understand that will strengthen your daily prayer life.

1. Make This Your Daily Prayer Request: “Deliver Us From Evil”

One of the petitions that Christ taught us to pray is this:

“And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen” (Matthew 6:13).

We have an enemy, whom the Bible calls the evil one—and he has all the organized, mobilized forces of Hell behind him. Our Lord taught us to pray, “Deliver us from the evil one.”

Our warfare is prayer. This is why we must be praying every day.

It has always been Satan’s method to pull the veil of darkness over his kingdom, to masquerade in some disguise. But by the aid of the Holy Spirit, we can indeed rip away that cover and expose the darkness. “Then Jesus spoke to them…‘I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life’” (John 8:12).

2. See God’s Enemy as Your Enemy

First, we must recognize the person of evil: Satan. If you knew there was a lion loose in your neighborhood, wouldn’t you be a little bit careful? “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

Satan is not the figment of someone’s imagination. He is the bitterest enemy of God and God’s people. The Bible calls him the deceiver, a murderer, the accuser. The evil one. He is personal, aggressive, cunning, and destructive. And his cleverest method is to make people think that he does not exist.

The snares of the devil will ruin your life and your family—so what are the people of God to do? Make the Lord’s Prayer your daily prayer.

3. Start Your Morning with: “Lead Us Not Into Temptation”

To avoid succumbing to temptation, you need to recognize when you are being tempted.

The Lord warned Israel:

When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you. (Deuteronomy 18:9-12).

Evil is seductive and deceptive.

The pagan nations of the Old Testament were sacrificing their children to pagan gods. We sacrifice them on the altar of abortion.

Satan leads us astray through spiritualism—New Ageism, astrology, contact with the dead, etc.

The word translated above as “sorcerer” comes from the Greek word pharmakeia, which means “an enchanter with drugs.” From time immemorial, sorcery has been linked with potions that steal away men’s minds.

The evil one has invaded this age through entertainment and media. What is shown to us and our children is absolutely sickening.

Another form of demonic activity that we are warned of in the New Testament is false doctrine, and apostasy. “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1). When you look for the devil, never fail to look in the pulpit. Satan uses religion to accomplish his deception.

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:13-14).

So, you must recognize the sinister person of evil. There is a devil. He is your adversary. If you do not recognize that you have an enemy, you will not prepare yourself for defense.

Prayer for God’s Provision at the Start of the Day

Read the words of the Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6:9-13. When is this prayer to be prayed?

In the morning.

This is made obvious by the petition, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Why pray for your daily bread at the end of the day? And in the same prayer where we are taught to pray for our daily bread, we are taught to ask God to deliver us from the evil one.

Too many of us wake up in the morning and jump out of bed. Get dressed, catch comes news, gulp some coffee, go to work. Everything is just fine. Then here comes the enemy. We fail, we fall. We come to the end of the day and we pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).

Every time you pray that in sincerity and in truth, He does forgive you, and thank God for that! But if there is a sin that we have asked forgiveness for thousands of times—and we all have—why is that? Because we have only learned part of the Lord’s prayer. We have not yet learned to pray, “Lord, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

4. Pray for God’s Provision and Protection

Jesus would never have taught you to pray this if He did not intend to deliver you.

He told His disciples, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). You may be thinking, “I don’t know why I fail so much.” What is your prayer life like?

There are three cords that run throughout the Bible: the dark cord of Satan’s revolt, the crimson cord of the blood redemption, and the golden cord of our Lord and His Christ. To understand the Scriptures, you need to see all three of those themes.

The battle is the Lord’s, and there is victory in Jesus. Wonderful news for you: you do not have to fear. You do not have to fall. You can stand, if you will learn how to pray.

What is the ground of our victory in Christ?

Fully Rely on God

The ground of our victory is God Himself. His is the kingdom. That means absolute authority.

Satan is powerful, but he is not all powerful. Satan rules, but he rules a doomed domain. God’s is the kingdom and God’s is the power.

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).

Christian, you do not produce power. All you do is release the power of God that is in you. “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen” (Matthew 6:13b).

Pray for the Sake of God’s Glory

Do you know the secret of all answered prayer? Jesus told us.

“And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13, Emphasis Added).

When your reason for asking and God’s reason for answering are the same, your prayer will be answered. Thine is the glory. This is why the Lord’s Prayer ends the way it does.

This is God’s plan for you in these evil days, to protect your children, your family, your life, your future: to learn how to pray. Daily prayer, in the power of the Holy Spirit—prayer of gratitude, prayer for supplication, prayer for humility, prayer for contentment, prayer for blessing, prayer for intercession on behalf of others.

Prayer for God’s provision should always include, “Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen” (Matthew 6:13).

You pray to a Father who can hear you, a King who can answer you.

List of Scriptures Referenced in This Article

Matthew 6:9-13, 26:41; Jeremiah 33:3; John 8:12, 14:13; 1 Peter 5:8; Deuteronomy 18:9-12; 1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Corinthians 11:13-14; 1 John 4:4

More Bible Verses About Prayer to God the Provider and Protector

Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints… (Ephesians 6:14-18).

But I will sing of Your power; yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning; for You have been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble. To You, O my Strength, I will sing praises; for God is my defense, my God of mercy (Psalm 56:16-17).