How to Make Halloween a Holy Day

The annual celebration of Halloween approaches. Some people enjoy the costumes, decorations, and trick-or-treating. Others dread the darker side of the festivities. But for centuries, Christian tradition has observed the last day of October as a day to acknowledge and pray against the forces of evil.

Whatever your view may be, you can turn Halloween into a holy day by praying against evil wherever it’s found. In that spirit, here are seven prayers—six from Scripture and another from Scottish lore that is one of my favorites—for praying against evil:

1. I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You  prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows (Psalm 23:4-5 NIV).
2. Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
   will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
   I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
   my God, in whom I trust.”
   Surely he will save me
   from the fowler’s snare
   and from the deadly pestilence.
   He will cover me with his feathers,
   and under his wings I will find refuge;
   his faithfulness will be my shield and rampart.
   I will not fear the terror of night,
   nor the arrow that flies by day,
   nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
   nor the plague that destroys at midday.
   A thousand may fall at my side,
   ten thousand at my right hand,
   but it will not come near me.
   I will only observe with my eyes
   and see the punishment of the wicked (Psalm 91:1-8, slightly revised from the NIV).
3. Deliver us from evil (Matthew 6:13 NIV).
4. Shield me with “the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16 NIV).
5. Lord, you are faithful. As your Word says, establish and guard me against the evil one (2 Thessalonians 3:3 ESV).
6. In faith I say with Paul, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen” (2 Timothy 4:18 NIV).
7. From ghoulies and ghosties
   And long-leggedy beasties
   And things that go bump in the night,
   Good Lord, deliver us! (traditional Scottish prayer)

The above have been proven over many centuries—millennia, even—as helpful and effective prayers against evil at any time, not just around Halloween.