A Prayer about Our Comfort in Grief

A Prayer about Our Comfort in Grief

[Hi friends, this prayer is based on Heidelberg Catechism Q. 1]

Dear Lord,

What a true comfort it is that in life and in death, 

in body and in soul, we belong to a faithful Savior, 

not just any savior, but a faithful One, 

who paid for our lives with his precious blood.

[Name your gratitude for how Jesus 

has rescued you from sin and slavery to the evil one].

Thank you for ruling over every detail of our lives, 

even the very hairs on our heads, 

and thank you for working all circumstances 

together for our salvation

[Name some circumstances you’ve seen him work together for salvation].

Thank you that your Spirit 

whispers firm assurances of eternal life 

and makes us “wholeheartedly willing and ready to live for you”.

[Name ways the Spirit has given you hope 

and empowered you to live for Christ].

In Jesus’ freeing name. Amen. 

Read 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Job 12:10; Acts 17:27-28.

A Prayer about Walking through Dark Valleys

A Prayer about Walking through Dark Valleys

Lord, our Good Shepherd,

As we walk through dark valleys, 

valleys that feel like death, 

valleys that lead to death,

[Name some valleys you are currently walking through or have walked through]

We will not be afraid,

[Name any fears you have felt]

For you are close beside us.

[Name how you have known God’s presence with you]

Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.

[Name the protection from harm and the comfort in grief and pain you have known].

In the name of our comforting Shepherd, Jesus, we pray.

Amen. 

Read Psalm 23.

A Prayer about Protection from Enemies

A Prayer about Protection from Enemies

God of Justice,

We join David in Psalm 17, 

asking you to hear our prayers against the enemy and any tools 

he may use on this earth in his plans of attack.

For those who have been betrayed, marginalized, treated unfairly, 

you have given us words to pray: 

“Wondrously show your steadfast love, 

O Savior of those who seek refuge 

from their adversaries at your right hand” (Psalm 17:7).

Even on the days when it seems like you don’t hear our prayers, 

remind us that you have heard them, 

that you have already begun 

to show us your steadfast love; 

you have already sent the refuge 

that will hide us in the “shadow of your wings,” 

Jesus, our compassionate protector.

Even on the days 

when it feels like “deadly enemies surround” us (Psalm 17:9), 

draw our eyes to look for the day 

when David’s words will come true for us, 

“As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; 

when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness” (Psalm 17:15).

In the name of the Savior who is our safe place.

Amen. 

A Prayer about Resisting the Enemy

A Prayer about Resisting the Enemy

Lord of Angel-Armies,

May we never forget or discount the spiritual battle 

that rages right here right now. 

The evil one prowls around like a lip-licking lion, 

drooling over our vulnerability and frailty. 

He is a liar, a tempter, an accuser, and an adversary. 

His minions serve him, 

seeking to deceive us into believing people we know we love are somehow unlovely, 

distract us from our mission to serve and glorify you, 

and degrade the dignity you have shaped into our image-bearing being. 

By the Holy Spirit, you have given us everything we need to defend ourselves 

against the accuser’s stratagems: 

the belt of truth, 

the breastplate of righteousness, 

the gospel slippers of peace, 

the shield of faith, 

the helmet of salvation, 

the sword of the Spirit. 

May we indeed arm ourselves 

against all the “cosmic powers over this present darkness” (Ephesians 6:12),

and resist the devil, that he may flee from us (James 4:7).

In Jesus’ peace-bringing name. Amen.

Read Ephesians 6:10-18.

Freedom from Addiction: A True Story

Freedom from Addiction: A True Story

Today, as we continue our celebration of gospel freedom I am asking an important question:

Is there such a thing as freedom from addiction?

Since I work in jail ministry (note about jail ministry — prayers that we can go back in soon), I ask this addiction question of myself and others frequently, since nine out of ten women we see are in for addiction-related charges. It became particularly poignant recently, in a story I am calling:

“I DON’T KNOW.”

We were wrapping up our Bible study and saying good-byes to the ladies at the jail when she tapped me on the shoulder. She had short strawberry blond hair that looked like it might have been chopped at the neck with a pair of kids’ scissors. When she opened her mouth to speak, the trademark dentalgia of a meth addict showed itself. Most of her teeth had been stolen by the greedy burglar.

“Pray for me.” She hadn’t been at Bible study, but she must have heard me asking for prayer requests and decided to take me up on it. “I’m getting out on Friday, and I don’t want to go back to drugs. This is the first time I’ve gotten out of jail and didn’t want to go back to drugs. I asked God to help me get off drugs, and that afternoon, I ended up in here.”

I looked at her, feeling deep compassion for her struggle, having heard that beating meth addiction is at least as hard as a camel going through an eye of a needle and probably ranks right up there with moving mountains.

She began to weep silently as she repeated her desire, “I don’t want to go back on drugs.”

“I know,” I said.

“You don’t know,” she replied, not unkindly.

“I don’t know,” I said. “You’re right. I don’t know.”

She went on, explaining, “No. You don’t know—I was a prostitute, and I don’t want to do that no more. I want to get off the drugs and off the streets.”

Had she been sitting at a nearby table when Mary, my co-worker, taught about how Jesus loved the adulterous Samaritan woman? Had she heard me say that we need community because Satan loves to isolate us in our shame and make us think that our shame is worse than anyone else’s?

She was right—I don’t know. I don’t know her story. I don’t know what it’s like to sell my body to buy a drug that destroys it. I don’t know what it’s like to try to escape monstrous addiction that claws at you day and night.

I do know this. God knows. God knows her story, and he loves her (Psalm 139:1-6).

I do also know that God makes no distinctions between M. as we’ll call her and me (Romans 10:12). I do know that God is the Lord of meth addicts and Facebook addicts and pornography addicts and sports addicts and clothes addicts. I know that God is the Lord who pursues actual prostitutes as well as those like me who sometimes sell him out for the sweet high of approval or fleeting moment of bringing fame to myself (John 4).

And I know that same God is the God of profound grace who forgives those who cry out to him for salvation (2 Chronicles 7:14).

I don’t know what will happen to M. when she leaves the jail. I do know I will continue to cry out to the God who knows her and loves her and has saved her, the God who knows me and loves me and has saved me.

A Prayer about Addiction:

Lord, we all need your grace. Daily, moment by moment, we seek to be filled by gods who are not You. And we know that there are some struggling with addictions that will kill them and harm others. We lift them up to you, asking you to pour out your abundant grace on them. Help them and us keep coming back to you to be filled, moment by moment, day by day.  In Jesus’ saving name we pray, Amen.

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From Recovery to Restoration cover

Get Hope for Troubling Times

Advance Review for From Recovery to Restoration

"When the storms of life crash into our lives, the devastation left behind is often overwhelming. Recovery and healing is slow and arduous. Elizabeth Turnage's devotional is for all those laboring toward recovery. From Recovery to Restoration is a hope-filled, gospel-laced, and Christ-exalting book which invites us into God's story of redemption and helps us see how he is at work to redeem and restore all things, even the aftermath of our personal losses, heartaches, and trials."

Christina Fox

Writer, Counselor, Speaker

author of A Heart Set Free: A Journey to Hope Through the Psalms of Lament.

A Prayer about Expressing Our Grief Honestly

A Prayer about Expressing Our Grief Honestly

Lord, God,

So many people I know right now are grieving—

Grieving deep disappointments over lost hopes and dreams; 

grieving divisions in friends and families as well as in our nation; 

grieving the death of loved ones.

In such a season, 

we are grateful that you wrote into your Word 

an honest lament like Psalm 88, 

one of the least-cross-stitched, least memed, 

least quoted Psalms in the Bible. 

As we read the honest words of this Son of Korah:

“You have caused my companions to shun me; 

you have made me a horror to them. 

I am shut in so that I cannot escape; 

my eye grows dim with sorrow….” (Psalm 88:8-9a),

we may even wonder if there is any faith, 

any hope to be found in such a Psalm.

Indeed, Psalm 88 expresses strong faith, 

the faith to trust God with the dark emotions of grief 

and the questions that seem to have no answers. 

Psalm 88 also expresses powerful hope, 

the hope that God is listening, 

even if he has not yet answered. 

Thank you for welcoming our cries of normal grief 

and for standing ready to meet us in our confusion. 

Thank you for answering the Psalmist’s cry: 

in Jesus, you have worked wonders for the dead; 

in Jesus, the departed do rise up to praise you.

One day soon, Jesus will return, 

and we will rest in his loving presence.

In Jesus’ kind name. Amen. 

Read Psalm 88.