This page offers a written prayer for missionaries, the people who have left home to serve God in another city, country or culture. You can pray it when you hear news from a field worker, when a missionary friend sends a prayer request, or on a regular morning as part of your intercession. Read it aloud as written, or use it as a starting point and speak in your own words about the people you know.
Prayers for Missionaries
Lord, you sent your Son across the boundary between heaven and earth, and you still send people across the boundaries of language, distance and custom. Today I lift up the missionaries who have answered that call. Some of them are awake right now in a city where the streets smell of smoke and cooking oil, trying to remember a word they learned only last month. Give them patience with the language, rest when they are worn down, and friends who will sit with them over a cup of tea even when no one can yet understand a full sentence.
Father, protect their families, especially the children who did not choose this life and sometimes feel the loneliness most sharply. Guard their health, their finances and their marriages. When supporters grow quiet and letters stop coming, remind them that they are not forgotten by you or by the people who prayed them out the door. Give them wisdom in hard decisions, courage when opposition rises, and tenderness toward the people they came to serve. Let their work bear fruit that they may not live to see. Keep their hearts anchored in your love rather than in their results. Amen.
A Shorter Version to Pray in a Moment
Lord, be near the missionaries I think of today. Steady their hands, quiet their fears, and give them words in the language they need most. Protect their families and their health, and let them feel your presence in the places where they feel most alone. Use them for your purposes in the lives of the people they love and serve. Amen.
Scriptures to Pray Alongside
Matthew 28:19-20
19 Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
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Pray these words for missionaries as a reminder that they go under Christ’s authority, not their own. Ask that they would hold to his promise to be with them in every place they are sent.
Isaiah 52:7
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
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Use this verse to pray for missionaries who carry good news into difficult places. Ask God to make their steps beautiful in the eyes of those who are waiting to hear.
Romans 10:14-15
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher? 15 And how will they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Good News of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!”
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Pray this passage for missionaries and for the churches that send them, that the sending itself would be a faithful act of obedience and not merely an event on a calendar.
Ephesians 6:19-20
19 On my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the Good News, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
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Paul asked for boldness and words when he was in chains. Ask God to give missionaries the same plainness of speech, even when the circumstances around them are uncertain.
Psalm 121:7-8
7 The LORD will keep you from all evil. He will keep your soul. 8 The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time forward, and forever more.
(WEB)
Pray this psalm for missionaries who travel, live far from home and face danger. Ask that the Lord would keep their going out and their coming in, today and in the seasons ahead.
How to Pray This Prayer
Many people find it helpful to pray for missionaries first thing in the morning, before the day’s noise begins. Keep a short list of names beside your Bible or on your phone, and work through it slowly, pausing after each name to picture a face, a place or a daily task. If you have a letter, a photo or a recent update from a missionary, hold it in your hands while you pray so that your attention stays concrete.
You can also pray this prayer with others. A small group, a family table or a church prayer meeting can take turns reading a paragraph each, and anyone who knows a missionary personally can add a sentence about that person’s particular need. Send a short note afterward to let the missionary know you prayed, since many of them feel encouraged to hear that someone remembered them specifically.
A Blessing to Close
May the Lord who sent his Son bless every missionary who has gone out in his name. May he go before them into each new village and each unfamiliar street, and may he meet them there with peace, strength and joy. And may you who pray for them be filled with the same faithfulness that carries them across the world.
