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Prayer for Grief and Loss
For the weeks after the funeral, when everyone else has gone back to normal
Grief has no schedule and no correct way to be done. Jesus stood at the tomb of a friend he was about to raise, and wept anyway; the shortest verse in the Bible is that one. This prayer does not try to explain the loss. It gives you words for the days when you cannot find your own, and you can leave out anything that is not true for you yet.
The prayer
Lord, someone I love is gone, and the house is quieter than I can bear. I keep reaching for the phone. I keep expecting the door. You know their name, and you know the exact shape of the hole they have left.
I am not asking you to take the grief away, because it is the last thing I have of them. I am asking you to sit in it with me. Comfort me the way you promised to comfort those who mourn, not with explanations but with your presence.
Help me through the practical days, the paperwork and the first birthday and the empty chair. Give me people who will say their name without flinching. And when I am angry with you, let me say so, and stay.
You are close to the broken-hearted. Be close to me now. Amen.
In one breath
Lord, I have lost someone I love and I do not know how to do this. Stay close, and hold what I cannot. Amen.
Verses to hold on to
The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Matthew 5:4 was the verse of the day on June 29, 2026. See that day
How to pray it
- Say the person's name in the prayer; grief needs it spoken, and God is not embarrassed by it.
- If you are angry with God, tell him; a third of the Psalms are complaints, and they were kept in the book.
- Pray it again on the anniversaries; grief comes back on dates, and the prayer can too.
Make it your own
Say what you are living, in a few words, and receive this prayer written for your situation.
- Your words
- Your prayer
Questions
Other prayers
- Prayer for AnxietyFor the mind that will not stop, at 3 a.m. or in the middle of the day
- Prayer for StrengthFor the day you have nothing left and still have to get up
- Prayer for a Loved OneFor someone you love who is going through something you cannot fix for them
- Prayer for My ChildrenA parent's prayer for a child of any age, from the cot to the grown-up who no longer calls
- Prayer When Faith Is WeakA prayer for the days when believing is hard and God feels far away
- Prayer for ForgivenessA prayer to ask God's forgiveness, and to find the strength to forgive someone else
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