A Prayer After the Loss of a Loved One

Father, someone I love is gone, and the world has not made sense since.

Thank You for their life. Thank You for every year, every ordinary day, the laughter, the voice I can still hear, the love that will not stop just because they have. They were a gift, and I knew it, and I would grieve this much again rather than never have loved them at all.

I trust them into Your keeping now, Lord. You loved them before I did and You love them still. What I can no longer hold, You hold.

But I am still here, and it hurts. Be gentle with me in these days. Help me eat, sleep, and breathe. Send people who will sit with me without trying to fix what cannot be fixed. And when the missing washes over me without warning, steady me until it passes.

I do not ask You to make this quick. I ask You to make me able to bear it, with You beside me.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

When to Pray This

Pray this in the days surrounding a funeral, on anniversaries, or any time the loss feels new again. You may find yourself returning to it for years — that's not a step backward, it's what love does.

A Verse to Hold On To

"Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." — Matthew 5:4 (KJV)