People almost never pray for protection in general. They pray about one specific thing: a teenager driving home in the dark, a scan result, a street they have to walk down, a court date, a person who will not leave them alone. So the prayers here are arranged by what you are actually afraid of, and the short ones come first, because fear rarely leaves room for anything long.
Lord, cover me and the people I love today.
Keep us from harm, and keep harm from us.
Set your angels around this house, this road, this day.
Whatever comes, do not let go of us. Amen.
Twenty seconds, aloud or under your breath. Nine more short prayers are directly below.
On this pageShort Prayers Psalm 91 Prayers from Scripture What It Actually Asks For Family and Home Children Protection from Evil Catholic Prayers Safety and Travel Bible Verses Questions Browse All Prayers
Short Prayers for Protection
These are the ones people use most. Each is short enough to say from memory, in a car, in a corridor, in the two seconds before you open a door.
Lord, go ahead of me today and close what should stay closed.
Keep me from harm, and keep me from doing harm.
Bring me home safe. Amen.
Father, I go out under your care and I come back under it.
Guard my going and my coming in. Amen.
Lord, put your hand over every one of them today.
Where I cannot go, go for me.
Where I cannot see, see for me. Amen.
Father, keep my children safe in body, mind and soul.
Give them friends who are kind and adults who are trustworthy.
Hold them when I am not there. Amen.
Lord, guard me and lead me, in that order.
Keep me from danger, and keep me from the wrong road.
Make the next step clear. Amen.
Lord, I cannot reach them. You can.
Stand between them and every harm tonight,
and let them feel that they are not alone. Amen.
Father, protect my friend today.
Cover what is fragile in them. Steady what is shaking.
Bring them through this. Amen.
Lord, watch this house while we sleep.
Guard the doors, guard the dreams, guard the ones under this roof.
Wake us to a safe morning. Amen.
Jesus, help. Cover me. Amen.
Three words are a complete prayer. In real fear, most people cannot manage more, and nothing more is required.
Lord, hold this car and everyone in it.
Steady my hands, clear my eyes, and get us there. Amen.
More at our prayers for safe travel and short prayers for other situations.
Psalm 91, the Protection Psalm
If Christians have one protection text, this is it. It is prayed over soldiers, over hospital beds, over houses, and it has been for as long as there have been Christians to pray it.
How to pray Psalm 91
Read it slowly and put the names in. Say “there shall no evil befall her, neither shall any plague come nigh her dwelling” over the person you are worried about. Praying scripture is not a technique; it is borrowing words that are already true and pointing them at your own situation.
Does Psalm 91 guarantee that nothing bad will happen?
Psalm 91 is the passage the devil quotes to Jesus. In Matthew 4, at the top of the temple, he uses verses 11 and 12 word for word: he shall give his angels charge over thee, they shall bear thee up in their hands. Then he tells Jesus to jump.
Jesus does not argue with the psalm. He answers with a different verse: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” The promise is real. Treating it as a guarantee you can test, a thing that obliges God to catch you whatever you walk into, is the one use of it that Jesus refused.
That is worth holding onto when you pray it, because it is the difference between trust and a transaction. Psalm 91 is not a spell and it is not a contract. It is a description of where you live: under the shadow of the Almighty, which is the safest place there is and is still not a place where nothing ever happens.
Protection Prayers from Scripture
Four more passages Christians pray as protection, with the words as they stand.
The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in, from this time forth, and even for evermore.Psalm 121:1-3, 7-8
The traveller’s psalm. It was sung by pilgrims walking up to Jerusalem, which is why it is about feet, hills and the sun.
For the fear that has a face: a person, a hearing, a diagnosis with a date on it.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
The only protection prayer Jesus taught directly. Millions of Christians ask for deliverance from evil every single day without noticing that this is what they are doing. The full text is here.
Lord, I put on the whole armour of God today.
Truth around me, righteousness over my heart,
the gospel of peace under my feet,
faith in my hand, salvation on my head,
and your word in my mouth.
Let me stand. Amen.
Built from Ephesians 6:11-17. Note what Paul asks for: not that the attack will not come, but that you will still be standing after it.
What a Prayer for Protection Actually Asks For
Most pages of protection prayers never say this, so here it is plainly. Christians who pray for protection still get ill, still crash cars, still lose people. Any honest answer to “does this work” has to start there, or it is not an answer, it is advertising.
Acts 12 is the passage that settles it. Herod kills the apostle James with the sword. Then he arrests Peter, and the church prays for him without ceasing, and an angel opens the prison and walks him out. Same church, same God, same prayers, one week apart. Luke reports both and explains neither.
The other phrase worth checking is “a hedge of protection”, which turns up in more prayers than almost any other. It comes from Job 1:10, and the person who says it is Satan, complaining to God that Job is fenced in on every side. Then the hedge comes down, with permission, and the book spends forty chapters refusing to give a tidy reason why.
So what is a protection prayer for? It asks God to act, seriously and specifically, and it puts the outcome in his hands rather than in the strength of your own faith. It also does something to the person praying. Fear shrinks your world down to the thing you are afraid of. Naming it in front of God puts it back in proportion, and it is very hard to say “the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear” ten times and remain exactly as frightened as you were.
Pray boldly for the outcome you want. Ask for the scan to be clear, the road to be safe, the person to be stopped. And pray the second half too, the part Jesus prayed in Gethsemane: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. Both halves belong in the same prayer.
If you are in danger right now
Pray on the way. Call emergency services, get to a safe place, tell someone who can act. Christians have never held that asking God for help means turning down the help he sends. The prayers on this page are for alongside that, not instead of it.
Prayers for the Protection of Family and Home
Father, I bring you every person in this family by name.
Guard their bodies from accident and illness.
Guard their minds from despair and their hearts from bitterness.
Keep them from harm, and keep them from the harm they might do to themselves.
Where they are out of my reach, they are still in yours.
Hold them all, and bring us back to the same table. Amen.
Lord, let this house be a safe place.
Guard the doors and the windows and everyone who comes through them.
Let no fear settle here, no violence, no thing that would divide us.
Fill the rooms with your peace, and let anyone who walks in feel it. Amen.
Traditionally prayed while walking through the rooms, and at the door on the day you move in.
Lord, you know where they are tonight and I do not.
Watch over them, on the road, at work, in whatever they are carrying.
Keep them faithful, keep them safe, and bring them home to me. Amen.
Father, they cared for me before I could care for myself.
Steady them now. Guard them from falls, from fear, from being forgotten.
Send someone kind to their door today. Amen.
More at our prayers for family, prayers for a husband and prayers for a new home.
Prayers for the Protection of Children
Lord Jesus, you took children in your arms and blessed them.
Take mine now.
Guard their bodies as they run and climb and fall.
Guard their minds from what they are too young to carry.
Guard their souls, and let them grow up knowing they are loved by you and by me. Amen.
Father, go with them through the gate.
Give them one good friend today and one adult who notices them.
Keep them safe until I see them again. Amen.
Angel of God, my guardian dear,
to whom God’s love commits me here,
ever this day be at my side,
to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.
The first prayer most Catholic children learn, and the one a surprising number of adults keep saying.
Lord, I cannot follow them any more, and I would if I could.
Go where I am not allowed to go.
Put people in their path who will tell them the truth.
Keep them alive and bring them back. Amen.
More at our prayers for children, prayer for a sick child and prayer for a child with anxiety.
Prayers for Protection from Evil
Christian prayer against evil is short, calm and confident. It does not shout and it does not bargain. That tone is itself the point: the outcome is not in doubt.
Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host,
by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits
who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
Composed by Pope Leo XIII in 1886 and still the standard Christian prayer for spiritual protection. Note that it does not address the devil at all. It asks God to deal with him.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise. Amen.
An old Irish lorica, from the Latin for breastplate. The lorica is a whole genre of protection prayer, and this is the one that survived.
Lord Jesus, I belong to you.
Whatever is coming against me, it did not make me and it does not own me.
Cover me with your blood, quiet my house, clear my mind,
and let nothing stay here that you have not allowed. Amen.
Father, I am afraid, and I am telling you rather than carrying it.
You have not given me a spirit of fear.
Take this one back, and give me a clear head and a quiet heart tonight. Amen.
More at our prayers for fear and prayers for peace of mind.
Catholic Prayers for Protection
Alongside the Saint Michael prayer and the Guardian Angel prayer above, these are the protection prayers Catholics reach for most.
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession, was left unaided.
Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother.
To thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.
The prayer Catholics say when something has gone badly wrong. The whole prayer rests on one claim: nobody who asked was turned away.
May the holy cross be my light.
Let not the dragon be my guide.
Step back, Satan.
Never tempt me with vain things.
What you offer me is evil. Drink your own poison.
The words abbreviated on the Saint Benedict medal, in English. Older than most people assume and blunter than most modern prayers.
Saint Raphael, angel of healing and safe journeys,
go before me as you went before Tobias.
Guard me on the road, guard my health, guard the people travelling with me,
and bring us home whole. Amen.
Raphael’s name means “God heals”. He accompanies and protects Tobias through the whole journey in the Book of Tobit, which is in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles and not in most Protestant ones, which is why this devotion is mainly a Catholic one.
Jesus, I trust in you.
Four words. In the Divine Mercy devotion they are repeated until they stop being a statement and start being true.
More at our Catholic prayers for healing and how to pray the Rosary.
Prayers for Safety, Travel and Work
Lord, you know the road and I do not.
Keep this journey ordinary. No harm to us, no harm through us.
Bring us to the other end and let someone be glad to see us. Amen.
Father, the sky is yours and so am I.
Steady this aircraft, steady the people flying it, steady me.
Set us down safely. Amen.
Lord, guard me today at work.
Keep my hands safe and my judgement clear.
Protect me from what is dangerous and from people who mean me harm.
Send me home in one piece. Amen.
Father, watch the people who are awake tonight so the rest of us can sleep:
nurses, drivers, police, the ones on call.
Guard them, keep them alert, and get them home at dawn. Amen.
Lord, you spoke to the wind and it stopped.
Speak now.
Cover this house, this town, these people.
Spare us, and give courage to whoever has to go out into it. Amen.
Lord, walk this with me.
Keep my eyes open and my feet quick.
Let nothing follow me but your mercy. Amen.
More at our prayers for safe travel and prayers for guidance.
Bible Verses About Protection
Questions About Prayers for Protection
What is the most powerful prayer for protection?
Psalm 91 is the passage Christians have used for protection more than any other, and the Lord’s Prayer contains the only protection request Jesus taught directly: deliver us from evil. If you want one line to carry with you, “Jesus, cover me” is a complete prayer. Power in Christian prayer is not in the wording. It is in who is listening.
What is the Psalm 91 prayer for protection?
It is Psalm 91 itself, prayed as a request rather than read as a poem. Most people use verses 1 to 2 and 9 to 12: dwelling in the secret place of the Most High, the refuge and fortress, no evil befalling your dwelling, and God giving his angels charge over you. The full text, in the King James Version, is above on this page.
What is the Psalm 121 prayer of protection?
Psalm 121 is the traveller’s psalm. Its protection lines are verses 7 and 8: “The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in.” Pilgrims sang it walking to Jerusalem, and people still pray it before journeys.
Is Psalm 27 a prayer for protection?
Yes, though of a particular kind. Psalm 27 is about protection from fear rather than from a specific danger. It begins “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” and it is the psalm to use when what you are up against has a face and a date on the calendar.
What is a hedge of protection?
The phrase comes from Job 1:10, where Satan accuses God of putting a hedge around Job on every side. It has passed into common Christian prayer as a request for God’s protection to surround a person or a house. It is worth knowing that in the story the hedge is lowered, with God’s permission, and Job’s suffering follows. The phrase is a fine thing to pray. It is not a guarantee, and the Bible does not present it as one.
Does praying for protection mean nothing bad will happen?
No, and no honest Christian teacher has ever claimed otherwise. Paul was shipwrecked three times and beaten repeatedly. Stephen was killed. In Acts 12, James is executed and Peter is rescued from the same prison system in the same chapter. Protection prayer is a real request made to a real God who sometimes answers with rescue and sometimes answers with company. Ask boldly for rescue. Ask also for the strength to stand if the answer is the other one.
What is the powerful prayer that never fails?
There isn’t one, in the sense the question usually means. No form of words obliges God to act, and prayer that treats certain phrases as reliably effective has stopped being prayer and become something closer to magic. What never fails is the asking itself: “Ask, and it shall be given you” holds, though the answer is God’s to choose.
How do you pray for protection over someone else?
Use their name, be specific about the danger, and ask plainly. “Lord, protect Daniel on the road tonight, keep him awake and get him home.” Specific prayer is not more effective than vague prayer, but it is honest about what you actually want, and it is easier to keep praying because you can see when it is answered.
Is there a Catholic prayer for protection?
Several. The Saint Michael prayer is the main one, followed by the Guardian Angel prayer, the Memorare, the Saint Benedict prayer and the Rosary. All of them are on this page. Catholics ask saints and angels to pray with them; the protection itself is always understood to come from God.
Is the evil eye a Christian belief?
No. Christianity does not teach that envy or a look can carry supernatural harm, and the Church has consistently discouraged amulets, charms and counter-rituals aimed at deflecting it. If you are frightened that someone has cursed you, the Christian response is not a counter-charm. It is prayer, the sacraments if you are Catholic, and the Saint Michael prayer, all of which rest on the belief that you already belong to Christ and nothing has to be bought or bargained for.
When should you pray for protection?
Before, not only during. Most of the prayers above are morning prayers or door prayers, said at the start of a day or a journey rather than in the middle of a crisis. That is not because prayer works better in advance. It is because a habit formed in calm is still there when you are too frightened to think.
Send a Prayer to Jerusalem
If there is someone you are asking God to protect, you can have that prayer taken to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the site of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial and resurrection. A priest prays it there in English, the printed prayer is placed inside one of the chapels in the church, and a candle is lit for you. You receive photographs of both by email. A portion of every order is donated to the church.
Send your prayer to Jerusalem. Write it from the heart. It is placed and photographed once, so make it count.
More Prayers for Every Situation
Prayers for Deliverance
For protection that goes further, when you sense you are up against something spiritual.
Pray for deliveranceWhen You Are Afraid
For the People You Love
Health and Healing
Who Writes These Prayers
Unless a prayer is marked as traditional or quoted from Scripture, the prayers on this page are written and reviewed by the Holy Land Prayer team, who carry the prayer requests sent to us into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Read more about Holy Land Prayer.
Last updated 6 October 2026 by the Holy Land Prayer team.
