Powerfully Pray Psalm 143:8 to Start Your Day With Bravery

“Make me hear of Your faithful love in the morning for I trust in You. Teach me how I should walk, for I offer my soul up to You.” – Psalm 143:8 (ESV)

Did you know that Psalm 143:8 can become your secret weapon against anxious mornings and overwhelming days? In those first sacred moments between the alarm clock’s announcement of a new day and when our feet touch the floor, this single verse offers us a remarkable but often missed opportunity to change our lives.

When David penned these words—“Make me hear of Your faithful love in the morning, for I trust in You. Teach me how I should walk, for I offer my soul up to You.”—he created the perfect framework for starting each day with bravery instead of fear. Psalm 143:8 is our opportunity to transform anxiety into trust, confusion into clarity, and ordinary mornings into encounters with God’s faithful love.

Let’s Take a Look at all of Psalm 143

Any Word within our Bibles is a good Word. But we are able to better understand the intention behind individual verses when we read them in their context. All of Psalm 143 is powerful. I love how David walks us through God’s love, our trust, His protection, His shelter, walking in His will, leveling the ground beneath our feet, and His preservation of our wholeness in the face of adversity and heartache.

Make me hear of Your faithful love in the morning,
    for I trust in You.
Teach me how I should walk,
    for I offer my soul up to You.

⁹ Rescue me from my enemies, Eternal One,
    for You are my shelter from them.
¹⁰ Teach me how to do Your will,
    for You are my God.
Allow Your good Spirit to guide me
    on level ground, to guide me along Your path.

¹¹ For the sake of Your name and the good of Your reputation,
    preserve me, O Eternal One.
    In Your righteousness, save my life from burden and misery.
¹² In Your loyal love, silence my enemies for good;
    destroy all those who take pleasure in my suffering,
    for I am Your faithful servant! -Psalm 143:8-12 VOICE

Don’t Worry—Praying Psalm 143:8 in the Morning Isn’t Hard to Do!

I am a terrible morning person. I’d be ecstatic if days didn’t start until after 9:00 am. But because the world doesn’t function that way, I’ve had to find a way to do mornings better than my natural inclination.

Thankfully, I discovered something that helped change not only my mornings but my life, for the better. It’s tucked away in those first sacred moments of the day right before my feet hit the floor. Don’t worry, it isn’t something that demands much time or training. Truthfully, it’s so simple, we overlook its power.

Why Psalm 143:8 Works

When David wrote Psalm 143:8, he wasn’t having a casual conversation with God. He was likely fleeing from enemies—either King Saul’s relentless pursuit or his own son Absalom’s rebellion. In his darkest, most vulnerable moments, David discovered something profound: the way we start our morning determines how we face our battles.

Psalm 143:8 works because it addresses the three things we need most each morning:

1. Assurance of love – “Let me hear of your faithful love”
2. Foundation of trust – “for in you I trust”
3. Direction for decisions – “Teach me the way I should go”

Starting Your Day With a Morning Prayer

When we use those first few moments of the day to pray, we walk into our day conquering negativity and disappointment. Prayer starts our day in gratitude and infuses our hearts with hope and bravery.

There isn’t one right way to pray. What matters is tuning into Jesus, giving Him our first, and deepening our relationship with Him.  However, if you are the kind of person who craves some structure and guidance, I am honored to share with you my personal strategy.

How to Pray Psalm 143:8 Using the ACTS Method

Most frequently, I use the ACTS Model of prayer. It resonated with me years ago and is now ingrained to the point of habit. (For more information, I share the ACTS Prayer Model HERE on my website)  I also always pray using Scripture because God tells us in Ephesians 6 that His Word is the sword of the Spirit. By praying God’s Word, we wield the most powerful weapon we have!

Psalm 143:8 (and all of Psalm 143!) is a hope-filled Word from the Lord. It fuels our spirits with bravery and prepares us for our day. The Bible is filled with hundreds, if not thousands, of verses we can turn into our morning prayers. Here’s how to pray Psalm 143:8 using the ACTS model:

Adoration

“Dear Jesus, You are the God who creates each new morning. With them, You create new beginnings and You extend grace and forgiveness to me day after day. With each rising sun, You give me new hope. Thank You for Your faithful love that I can trust. You are steadfast, unchanging, and Your love never fails.”

Confession

“Like David in Psalm 143:8, I acknowledge my need for Your guidance. I confess that I often try to figure out my day on my own strength. Forgive me for mornings when I rush into my tasks without first hearing Your voice of love.”

Thanksgiving

“Lord, thank You for the promise in Psalm 143:8 that I can hear Your faithful love each morning. Thank You for being trustworthy. Thank You for caring about my daily decisions and wanting to teach me Your ways.”

Supplication (requests)

“Please, Lord, as Psalm 143:8 says, let me hear Your faithful love this morning. When anxiety tries to crowd in, remind me that You love me. Teach me the way I should go today. Guide me when I am unsure and give me eyes to see the beauty within the moments of the day. I lift my soul up to You—my plans, my worries, my hopes. Lead me in Your truth.”

A Morning Prayer for Bravery Using Psalm 143 (ACTS Format)

5 Ways to Use Psalm 143:8 Throughout Your Day

Psalm 143:8 isn’t just for morning prayer. God’s Word isn’t just for your morning time or to check a to-do list. His Word transforms. It is the Sword of the Spirit to wield in the face of the enemy when he attempts to derail your day with toxic thinking. And as a Christian life and mental health coach, I see change lives in miraculous ways.

1. Morning Foundation – Start with hearing God’s love before checking your phone

2. Midday Reset – When work stress hits, return to Him and say, “to You I lift up my soul”

3. Decision Points – Before important choices, pray, “teach me the way I should go”

4. Anxiety Interruption – When overwhelmed, pray, “for in You I trust”

5. Evening Reflection – End your day thanking God for His guidance

Making Psalm 143:8 Real When Life Is Overwhelming

Sometimes Psalm 143:8 feels impossible to pray. When you’re facing job stress, relationship conflict, or health concerns, hearing about God’s faithful love might feel distant. Here’s what I’ve learned as someone who coaches others through difficult seasons:

Start small. You don’t need to feel David’s intensity to benefit from Psalm 143:8. Even whispering “teach me the way I should go” while making coffee counts as prayer.

Be honest about your struggles. David was fleeing for his life when he wrote this. Your struggles are valid, and Psalm 143:8 meets you in them.

Focus on one phrase. If the whole verse feels overwhelming, pick one part: “faithful love,” “I trust in You,” or “teach me the way.”

Your Hope for Today

May today’s message lead you forward in your faith life. We are all witness to an unprecedented time in our history. Unfathomable and messy, we need our faith more than ever. We need the steadiness of a dependable Christ because we’ve learned that nothing in this world is dependable.

Sweet sister, may your spirit be filled with bravery and hope. May you grow closer to the Father each day. And may you use those first precious moments of each day as an offering to the Lord.

If you want to strengthen your prayer muscle, we have many prayer posts here on my blog. Understanding the Lord’s Prayer is an example that delves beneath the surface of the Lord’s Prayer to help us reflect on and understand why Jesus taught us to pray in this way. It is one of many free prayer resources available.

Wait! Before you go!

The Lord’s Prayer is a great place to start strengthening your prayer muscle. The words of this prayer come from when Jesus taught His disciples how to pray. If we dig into the meaning, we find so much more than a memorized set of words.

What we actually find are words that step in the gap as though they were written not a couple of thousand years ago, but today. And as though they were written specifically to each of us and the unique lives we lead.

All the details are in this free kit I created for you. Just fill in the requested information, and you will receive an email with your free copy. You will also be a part of a community of thousands who are unveiling their hope day by day.