Prayers for Depression

Depression makes prayer hard in a specific way. It is not that you stop believing. It is that you cannot summon the energy to say anything, and when you do manage it, you feel nothing back. If that is where you are, the prayers on this page are written to be read rather than composed. You do not have to mean them with your whole heart. Saying them at all is enough.

Below are ten prayers for different parts of it: the morning you cannot get up, the numbness, the worthlessness, the night, the long middle where nothing is dramatic and nothing is better. There is also a section of verses, and one on what to do when you cannot pray at all.

A word of care: prayer sits alongside medical help, it does not replace it. If depression is affecting how you sleep, eat, work or think about yourself, please talk to a doctor or a counsellor as well as praying. Asking for that help is not a failure of faith.

On this page: Short prayer for depression Prayers for depression What the Bible says about depression How to pray when depression makes praying impossible Questions about praying through depression

A short prayer for depression

For when you have nothing left and need something short enough to finish:

10 prayers for depression

1. A prayer for the morning you cannot get out of bed

For the hour when the day is already too much and it has not started.

2. A prayer for when you feel nothing at all

Depression is often not sadness but flatness: the absence of feeling, including the feeling of God.

3. A prayer for when you feel worthless

For the voice that has been telling you all week that you are a burden.

4. A prayer for the night that will not end

For three in the morning, when everything is worse and there is no one to call.

5. A prayer for when you cannot pray

For when even this page feels like too much effort.

6. A prayer for hope when you cannot feel it

Hope is not the same as optimism. This asks for the first, not the second.

7. A prayer for someone you love who is depressed

For watching it happen to someone else and being unable to reach them.

8. A prayer for the long middle

For depression that is not a crisis any more, just a fact: months or years in, with no clear end.

9. A prayer of thanks on a better day

Worth praying when the fog lifts a little, and worth remembering that it did.

10. A prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola

Written five centuries ago, and still one of the most honest prayers for darkness in the Christian tradition.

What the Bible says about depression

Scripture is far less tidy about this than most articles suggest. It contains people who wanted to die, prophets who asked God to end it, and at least one prayer that never resolves.

• Psalm 88: The one psalm that does not end well. It closes in darkness, with no turn toward praise. It is in the Bible on purpose. If every hopeful verse you are handed feels like a rebuke right now, read this one instead. It means someone got there before you and it was still counted as prayer.
• 1 Kings 19: Elijah asks God to take his life. God’s first response is not a sermon. He lets him sleep, then sends food, then lets him sleep again. Only afterwards does He speak, and then in a whisper. Rest and food came before answers.
• Psalm 34:18: “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart.” Nearness is what is promised here, not immediate rescue.
• Psalm 42:11: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” The psalmist talks to himself rather than pretending he is fine. That is a model worth copying.
• Psalm 147:3: “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” Binding a wound is slow work, done in stages.
• Isaiah 40:31: Those who wait on the Lord renew their strength. Note the order: the waiting comes first, and it is not passive.

How to pray when depression makes praying impossible

If prayer has stopped working the way it used to, that is a symptom, not a verdict on your faith. A few things that help:

1. Make it shorter. One sentence you finish is worth more than a long prayer you abandon. The short prayer at the top of this page exists for this reason.
2. Borrow the words. Read a prayer here or a psalm aloud rather than composing your own. On the worst days, reading is the only form of praying available, and it counts.
3. Do not wait to feel it. Depression flattens feeling, including religious feeling. Praying without emotion is not hypocrisy; it is praying while ill.
4. Pray alongside everything else that helps. Rest, food, daylight, someone who knows, a doctor if you need one. Prayer and help have never been rivals. Elijah got bread and sleep before he got a word from God.
5. Let someone else pray it. If you cannot, ask a person you trust to pray for you, or send a prayer to be prayed on your behalf.

Questions about praying through depression

What is a good prayer for depression?

A short and honest one. Long, eloquent prayers are hard to finish when you are depleted, and unfinished prayers tend to become one more thing you failed at. Start with a single sentence you can say without effort, and use the longer prayers above on the days you have more.

Can prayer cure depression?

Prayer is not a treatment and it is honest to say so. What people describe finding in it is company: the sense of not being alone in something, and somewhere to put what they cannot carry. That is real and it matters, and it sits alongside rest, other people, and medical care rather than replacing them.

Which psalm is best for depression?

Psalm 42 if you want honesty, Psalm 34 if you want nearness, Psalm 88 if every cheerful verse is making things worse. Psalm 88 is the one nobody recommends, and it is often the one that helps.

What do I say to someone who is depressed?

Less than you think. “I am not going anywhere” does more than advice. Prayer number seven above is written for the person watching, not the person suffering. It is a real position to be in and it deserves its own prayer.