Prayer for the Brokenhearted

Sacred Ordinary Days with Jenn Giles Kemper

What becomes of the brokenhearted? Pandemic-tide rages on. Our hearts are battered and bruised. Some of us have lost jobs. Others of us have lost loved ones. We wonder when we will get to share meals with neighbors again and worship together like we used to. We wonder if—and when—racial and economic injustices will be restored, redeemed, and reconciled. We ache for healing to come in our communities and families, in our churches and our very souls.

Throughout these six weeks of prayer, we hope to have offered a soft place to land, a tiny reprieve to help you feel a little less alone. We’ve prayed for our overwhelm and our loneliness, for our fears and our exhaustion, for our hopes, and now, our sorrows. Producer and writer Kayla Craig is our guide in this final episode of this six-week series on prayer.

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Each week, you’ll receive:

• A personal prayer written for you by our Sacred Ordinary Days team
• Scripture to meditate on
• An audio prayer to stream from our podcast
• Quotes and featured liturgies from a diverse group of Christian writers
• Tools for your prayer practice
• Reflection points for the journey

To meditate on:

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. // Psalm 34:18 (NLT)

He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. // Psalm 147:3-4 (NRSV)

All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too. // 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (The Message)

To reflect on:

What is most heavy on your heart today? What might that say about your hopes and values? How might God be inviting you to walk alongside someone else as they grieve? What does it tangibly look like to weep with those who weep?