Friendship · Prayers
Five prayers for friendship and loneliness
These are prayers to say, not to read about. They belong in the Ask step of the morning rhythm, after you have read and given thanks, and each one takes under a minute out loud. Say the one that is true this morning and leave the rest. Where a blank appears, put in the actual name — praying a name is what turns a good intention into an act.
When you are lonely and tired of saying so
Loneliness is not a spiritual failure and it does not need to be dressed up before it is brought. The psalms say it plainly, and so can you.
God, I am lonely this morning. I have said it to you before and nothing looks different, so I am saying it again. You made me for company and I do not have as much as I need. Do not let me grow hard about it, or convince myself I never wanted anyone. Turn toward me today. Keep me open to whoever you send, even if they arrive in a form I would not have chosen. Amen.
Turn to me and be gracious, for I am lonely and afflicted.
Salmo 25:16, BSB
When you are asking for someone to be given to you
It is an old, allowed prayer. The first thing named as not good in the world was a person on their own.
Father, you said it yourself: it is not good to be alone. So I am asking plainly — give me a friend. Not a crowd, not a following. One person I can tell the truth to, and one person who will let me be told the truth. While I wait, make me the kind of person that friendship can survive: less guarded, quicker to answer, easier to reach. Amen.
The LORD God also said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make for him a suitable helper.”
Genesis 2:18, BSB
For one friend, by name
Pray this slowly enough to actually think about the person. If more than one name comes, take one today and the other tomorrow.
Lord, I bring you ______. Thank you for the way they __________. You know what this week is asking of them, and I do not, all of it. Carry the part I cannot see. Give them sleep, and something to laugh at, and someone who notices. And where I have been a thin sort of friend to them — slow, distracted, absent — make me better, starting today. Amen.
A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who stays closer than a brother.
Proverbs 18:24, BSB
When a friendship has gone wrong
This one is short on purpose. Prayers about conflict get long when we are secretly still arguing.
God, something is broken between me and ______, and I have rehearsed my side of it enough times to know it by heart. Show me the part that is mine. Give me the sentence that repairs rather than the sentence that wins. If it is right to reach out, make me brave enough today. If it is right to wait, make me patient without going cold. Amen.
God settles the lonely in families; He leads the prisoners out to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a sun-scorched land.
Salmo 68:6, BSB
Before you walk into the day
The last prayer belongs at the Begin step, on the way out the door, when the morning turns into a Tuesday.
Jesus, you called your followers friends, so friendship is not a small subject to you. Make me useful to somebody today. Slow me down where I would normally hurry past. Let me notice the person nobody is asking after, and give me one plain, unheroic thing to do about it before tonight. Amen.
None of this replaces help you may need. If loneliness has become something heavier — you are not sleeping, not eating, not able to face the day — say so to a doctor or a counsellor. Prayer and real help are not rivals.
No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you.
John 15:15, BSB
Pray one of these tomorrow too. Prayers about people work slowly, and the change usually shows up in you first.
Scripture quoted from the Berean Standard Bible. Public domain (CC0)
In this category: Friendship