Prayers for Someone Who Lost a Loved One

The casseroles usually stop coming around the third week. By then the funeral is over, the out-of-town relatives have flown home, and the person who lost someone is alone in a house that still has the other coat on the hook. That is often when a friend needs you most, and when you have the least idea what to say.

A prayer for someone who lost a loved one can be one honest sentence: “Lord, be close to my friend tonight, carry what they can’t carry, and comfort them as only you can.” You don’t need polished words. Scripture says God is near to people with broken hearts, and Jesus wept at his friend’s grave even though he was about to raise him. The prayers below are short enough to pray in the car outside their house or to send in a text, and each one comes with a verse from the World English Bible (WEB).

How to pray for someone who is grieving

Start with their next small need. Grief is huge and abstract, while tonight is specific, so pray for a night of sleep, for the phone call to the bank they are dreading or for the first Sunday back at church. Then tell them you prayed, and say the name of the person who died. Most grieving people want to hear that name more than anything else you could offer.

Pastor Rick Warren, in the first part of his Daily Hope message “The Season of Loss,” explains why the tears are right even when we believe our loved one is with God: “We’re not grieving for their sake, we’re grieving for our own sake. We’re gonna miss them.” Pray with that in mind. You are asking God to comfort someone who misses a person, so you don’t need to talk them out of missing.

“The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit.”Psalm 34:18, WEB

A prayer for the first days after a death

The first week is a blur of phone calls, paperwork and visitors. Pray for strength for the next hour and leave the rest of the year to God.

Father, my friend’s world has stopped, and the rest of the world keeps moving. Be near them in the hospital hallway, at the kitchen table and in the funeral home office. Give them the strength for today’s decisions and the freedom to leave tomorrow’s for tomorrow. Hold the one they love in your mercy. In Jesus’ name, amen.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”Matthew 5:4, WEB

A prayer for a friend who can’t pray right now

Some people tell you plainly that they can’t pray. They are angry with God, or numb, or too tired to find words. You can pray on their behalf without asking them to agree with every line. Christians have always done this for one another, and Paul tells the church in Galatia to “bear one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2).

Lord Jesus, my friend has no words for you today, so I am bringing them to you myself. You wept at the grave of Lazarus even though you knew what you were about to do, so you are not offended by tears or by silence. Sit with my friend in the dark until they are ready to speak to you again. Amen.

“Jesus wept.” (John 11:35, WEB)

A prayer for the weeks after the funeral

Rick Warren tells listeners that people in a season of loss tend to pull back from everyone, which he calls “exactly the opposite of what you need.” His advice to the grieving is to let others in: “Let them sit with you. Let them grieve with you.” Your prayer can ask God to make you one of those people, and then you can go and do it.

God of all comfort, the visitors have thinned out and the cards have stopped. Don’t let my friend feel forgotten. Show me one practical thing to do this week, a meal, a ride or an hour on the porch, and give me the courage to sit in the quiet without filling it. Amen.

“Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep.”Romans 12:15, WEB

When Job lost his children, his friends sat on the ground with him for seven days and said nothing (Job 2:13). The trouble started when they began to explain his suffering, so pray for the patience to sit and the wisdom to keep explanations to yourself.

A prayer for the holidays without them

The first Thanksgiving and Christmas after a death are often harder than the funeral, because every tradition has the missing person in it. If you know someone facing an empty chair this year, pray for them before the season starts, and invite them somewhere specific.

Lord, this is my friend’s first Christmas without the one they love. Prepare them for the moments that will catch them off guard, like the song in the grocery store or the ornament with a name written on it. Give their family the grace to tell stories and laugh and cry at the same table. Amen.

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.”1 Thessalonians 4:14, WEB

A prayer when the loss was sudden

An accident, a heart attack or a phone call in the middle of the workday leaves no time to say goodbye. Shock comes first, and grief often doesn’t arrive for weeks.

Father, nobody saw this coming, and my friend is still trying to believe it happened. Steady them when the shock wears off. Guard them from replaying the last conversation and blaming themselves for what they could not have known. Comfort them as you promise to comfort all who are afflicted. Amen.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”2 Corinthians 1:3-4, WEB

What to send along with your prayer

A text that says “I prayed for you this morning, and I’m thinking about your mom today” does more than a long message about heaven. Leave out explanations such as “everything happens for a reason” or “God needed another angel,” which the Bible never says. Promise something you can actually do, then do it on the day you said you would.

If your friend talks about not wanting to go on living, stay with them and call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in the United States. Grief is a normal response to loss, and despair that frightens you is a reason to get help today.

The Bible’s last picture of death is a hopeful one, and it is worth praying over your friend when the time is right:

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. The first things have passed away.”Revelation 21:4, WEB

Keep reading and listening

• Growing in the Seasons of Life with Rick Warren
• 6 Comforting Bible Verses After the Loss of a Loved One
• 16 Bible Verses for Comfort in Troubling Times
• 10 Prayers for Comfort

AI-assisted from Pray.com episode transcripts, then reviewed and approved by Steve Gatena.