A Prayer for a Loved One Battling Addiction

Lord, You love them more than I do, and I didn't think that was possible. Addiction has taken someone I love and made them hard to reach, hard to trust, impossible to stop loving.

Go find them, God. You have always been good at finding people — in far countries, at rock bottom, at 3 a.m. Reach the person underneath the addiction, the one I still see flashes of, and call them home by name.

Protect them tonight. Keep them alive long enough for the turning point to come, and let it come soon. Put the right people in their path — a sponsor, a counselor, a stranger at a meeting, anyone whose words land where mine no longer can.

And help me, Lord, because this is breaking me too. Teach me the difference between helping and enabling, between boundaries and abandonment. Give me strength to say no when no is love, and grace to keep the door of my heart open.

I cannot save them. I lay that burden down — tonight, and probably again tomorrow. You are their Savior. I am just the one who loves them.

Bring my loved one back.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

When to Pray This

Pray this when someone you love is deep in addiction and you've run out of things to try. It's a prayer for the long haul — many people pray it every night for years, and it pairs well with support for you too, like Al-Anon or a counselor of your own. Loving an addict is heavy; you're allowed to get help carrying it.

A Verse to Hold On To

"But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." — Luke 15:20 (KJV)