How should we pray and ask God to make us holy?

How should we pray?

How should we pray and ask God to make us holy? Here we look at an example model prayer that reflects the priorities of Scripture.

Example Prayer

Father, You have raised us with Christ, so help us, we ask, to set our hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at Your right hand.

Do Your sanctifying work by the Spirit as we believe in the truth.

Father, sanctify us by faith in Your Son Jesus Christ.

LORD, it is You who makes us holy.

We need You.

We want to be made holy so that we will be useful to You and be prepared to do every good work that You have for us to do.

Help us, therefore, to put to death what belongs to our earthly nature.

We know that the blood of Christ cleanses us from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve You—the living God!

We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Father, we thank You that we have been washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by Your Spirit.

We have been sanctified in Christ Jesus but we are still called to be Christ’s holy people.

Our old self was crucified with Christ so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.

So, help us to be holy not only positionally before You but also in practice.

God, You have done so much to bring us to Yourself!

You have provided Jesus who makes us holy through His own blood.

We know that by one sacrifice Jesus has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

So, don’t stop now!

Jesus has made us perfect forever!

But we are still being made holy.

So, help us!

We know that it is Your will that we should be sanctified.

We need You to help us and sanctify us by Your Spirit.

So, do that we plead as Your children through Christ.

We know as Jesus said, that no branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.

Neither can we bear fruit unless we remain in Your Son Jesus.

So, help us remain in Your Son and so bear much fruit.

Sanctify us by the truth; Your word is truth.

We want to be made holy.

And we know that without holiness no one will see the Lord.

So, help us!

Sanctify us!

God, we are confident of this, that You who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

So, may You sanctify us through and through. That our whole spirit, soul and body would be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is in His name that we ask all of this.

Amen.

Explanation of Prayer

To write this prayer I read and meditated on a lot of New Testament passages connected to sanctification. So this prayer is replete with language and imagery from the New Testament. Here are the passages that there are direct allusions to or quotations of: Ex. 31:13; Jn. 15:1-4; 17:17; Acts 26:18; Rom. 6:6; 15:16; 1 Cor. 1:2; 6:11; Phil. 1:6; Col. 3:1, 5; 1 Thess. 4:3; 5:23; 2 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 2:21; Heb. 9:14; 10:10, 14; 12:14; 13:12.

*Photo by Ismael Paramo