A Prayer for Grief and Loss

Father, grief has settled into my body like a weight I cannot set down. My chest is tight, my eyes are tired, and the world keeps moving as though nothing has changed, while everything in me has changed.

I will not pretend I am fine. The loss is real, and the ache of it follows me into every quiet room and every ordinary hour. I miss what is gone, and I do not know how to carry the missing.

So I bring this heaviness to You, because You are the only One large enough to hold it. I cannot fix it, and I am tired of trying. I lay it down, the whole tangled weight of it, here in Your presence.

Be near me in the way You promise to be near the brokenhearted. Sit with me in the silence. Catch the tears I cannot stop. Carry me on the days my own strength gives out entirely.

You said You are close to those whose hearts are crushed, and that You save the ones whose spirits are broken low. Be that close to me now, not as a distant idea but as a steadying hand.

I give You my grief, not because it is finished, but because You can be trusted with it. Hold me tonight, and meet me again at dawn. Amen.