Gospels by Category

Feeling profound sorrow, terror, or intense guilt due to recognizing one's sin, often stemming from the preaching of the Law, and prompting a desperate need for confession and absolution. This recognizes the sinner's existence before God.

³⁰ And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
³¹ And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
³² I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (ESV)

Prayer

Almighty God, I confess that I am a poor sinner and have offended You. Relieve my anxious conscience. I believe there is forgiveness of sins in Christ Jesus. Grant me Your mercy, according to Your word. Amen.

The need for absolute confidence in the gifts Christ gives, particularly the certainty of forgiveness, which is a step away from comfortlessness and doubt. This includes reliance on the external Word rather than fluctuating internal feelings.

³⁰ Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;
³¹ but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (ESV)

Prayer

Lord Jesus, grant me faith to trust not in my own feelings but in Your changeless heart and word of grace. Strengthen my assurance that I am Your baptized child and have eternal life through You. Amen.

Facing pain, distress, or affliction, whether physical, mental (like depression or anxiety), or external calamity, needing support and strength in the midst of trouble.

⁵ When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him,
⁶ “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.”
⁷ And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
⁸ But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.
⁹ For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
¹⁰ When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.
¹¹ I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,
¹² while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
¹³ And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment. (ESV)

Prayer

O Holy Spirit, strengthen and keep Your servant in the Word of truth and life, and support me in every time of trouble and distress. Turn my lament into praise. Be my Comfort, King, and Strength in this affliction. Amen.

Lamenting loss, death, or sorrow. The emotional aspect of human nature is acknowledged in suffering, requiring pastoral and biblical understanding.

³² Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
³³ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.
³⁴ And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”
³⁵ Jesus wept.
³⁶ So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
³⁷ But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
³⁸ Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.
³⁹ Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.”
⁴⁰ Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”
⁴¹ So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.
⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.”
⁴³ When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”
⁴⁴ The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” (ESV)

Prayer

Merciful Lord, in the valley of tears, sustain me with the hope of the resurrection. Be my Life in death. Give me rest in You until the dawn of salvation. Amen.

Struggling with worry, acute anxiety, or fear for the future, whether temporal or eternal. This feeling requires the removal of perturbation and a return to serenity of mind through faith.

²² And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.
²³ For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
²⁴ Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!
²⁵ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
²⁶ If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?
²⁷ Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
²⁸ But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!
²⁹ And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.
³⁰ For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them.
³¹ Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
³² “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
³³ Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
³⁴ For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (ESV)

Prayer

O God, make speed to save me: O Lord, make haste to help me. Quiet my troubled soul and grant me the peace which surpasses all understanding, knowing that You care for us. Amen.

A desire for clear guidance or answers to current life issues, recognizing the insufficiency of secular wisdom and the primary need to consult God's Word for sound advice.

²³ Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
²⁴ Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. (ESV)

Prayer

Heavenly Father, I pray for Your Holy Spirit to lead me into the land of uprightness and teach me what I ought to say. Order my steps in Your word, that I may follow the path of true wisdom. Amen.

Feeling abandoned, alone, or lacking community, needing to be recalled inwardly to the love of God and the fellowship of the Church.

¹¹ And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
¹² While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
¹³ But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
¹⁴ I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
¹⁵ I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
¹⁷ Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
¹⁹ And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. (ESV)

Prayer

Lord, make me mindful that I live by faith in Christ, free for serving others in love. Draw me after You, and grant me fellowship with Your people, so that I may never feel utterly alone. Amen.

Battling temptations, spiritual attacks, or specific vices (like covetousness or pride), needing divine assistance to stand firm against sin and the schemes of the evil one.

⁴³ And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.
⁴⁵ And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.
⁴⁷ And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell,
⁴⁸ ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ (ESV)

Prayer

Lord, lead us not into temptation, lest we be deprived of Your help. Deliver me from evil. Shield me from the plots of the enemy, and grant me vigilance to resist temptation. Amen.

Acknowledging personal weakness, inadequacy, or inability to perform tasks perfectly, and realizing that human limits reflect God's design, seeking strength and sufficiency from Christ.

¹⁹ Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”
²⁰ He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” (ESV)

Prayer

My Strength is in You, O Christ. I confess my weakness, but grant that Your grace may be sufficient for me. Let my faith rest not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Amen.

Struggling with lack of fervor, listlessness, or neglecting the pursuit of holiness and diligence in good works, needing encouragement toward spiritual alertness and perseverance.

¹ Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land.
² And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them:
³ “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow.
⁴ And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.
⁵ Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil.
⁶ And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.
⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.
⁸ And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
⁹ And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (ESV)

Prayer

Lord, rouse me from my deep slumber. Inflame my heart with longing for You. Grant me diligence in pursuing the knowledge of Your law and doing good works. Amen.

The necessity of focusing on future glory, the resurrection, and eternal joys rather than being consumed by temporary worldly matters, recognizing that true life transcends the temporal.

³⁶ Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” (ESV)

Prayer

Your kingdom come. Lift my wing of contemplation. May I pursue the one pearl and look forward to the everlasting kingdom of Your holy city, where I shall reign with You forever. Amen.

The realization that following Christ involves resistance and conflict from the world, requiring resilience and prayer when attacked or persecuted for righteousness' sake.

¹⁵ “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
¹⁶ You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
¹⁷ So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.
¹⁸ A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.
¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
²⁰ Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. (ESV)

Prayer

Sustain me, O Lord, in tribulation, knowing that the world hated You first. Grant me patience and fortitude, and wisdom in speech when I am delivered up, trusting that the Holy Ghost shall teach me what I ought to say. Amen.