Prayers in this series:
Life, Strength, The Church, Temptation, Gifts, Contentment
This prayer is part of a series of prayers influenced by the Hebrew dayenu prayer. A dayenu prayer is part of the traditional Jewish celebration of the Passover. "דַּיֵּנוּ/Dayenu" is Hebrew for "it would have been enough." The traditional dayenu prayer remembers God's miraculous deliverance of the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt, recognizing that each step along the way of that deliverance would have been enough, even if God didn't bring them all the way to the promised land.
These prayers are meant to help us submit to the will of God, recognizing that anything God does for us is more than enough. As you pray, you might not always completely agree with the statement you are reading. Allow the prayer to bring you to a deeper level of surrender. Let God stretch your ability to submit more completely to his will. Whatever God does through these prayers, you can know, it's enough.
A Dayenu Prayer—Temptation
Father, our Father, our holy, heavenly Father,
we want to be holy, like you are holy.
We wish that we were already home with you in heaven,
where there is no more temptation,
where it is impossible to sin.
But if we can’t yet be completely free from the power of sin,
but you always provide a way out of temptation…
It would be enough.
And if we can’t see that way out,
but we know that you lead us away from temptation…
if we know that you deliver us from evil…
It would be enough.
And if we see the way out of temptation,
but we fall, we fail, we give in to temptation…
if the grace you show us when we sin
makes us more grateful and devoted to obeying you...
It would be enough.
And if we resist temptation,
but the pressure doesn’t let up ....
and if being tempted means
that we embrace our weakness,
boast in our weakness,
celebrate our weakness
when facing temptation
knowing that your power is made perfect in our weakness…
It would be enough.
And if being tempted sends me running back to you,
and if you lead me out of temptation,
and you transform me through temptation,
and you heal me when I fall,
and if all of this is part of your plan to make me more like Jesus…
It would all be enough.
—Gary Brouwers © 2026 ReformedWorship.org, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
