Key takeaway: God is with you in your moment of need. Even short, simple prayers can help you feel His peace in your most desperate moments.
Prayers for Hope: Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Bible Verses for Hope
- Short Prayers for Hope
- Hope and the Eucharist
- Praying for Others
- St. Jude Novena
- More Prayers
It can be challenging to have hope in some of our darkest moments.
Even for people of faith–who know the promise of salvation that Jesus offers–it’s not always easy to be hopeful when life’s challenges weigh on us during difficult times.
But when things seem most hopeless and life’s struggles seem overwhelming, God is by our side.
The USCCB reminds us that “We cannot know the details of this future: ‘No eye has seen nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’ (1 Cor. 2:9). Nevertheless, we know that Jesus is our future.”
At Hallow, we want to help you draw closer to God every day but especially when you’re feeling hopeless.
Our hope begins with God and what God reveals to us in the Bible.
Bible Verses for Hope
Isaiah 40:30-31
Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Psalm 130:5-8
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits and I hope for his word. My soul looks for the Lord more than sentinels for daybreak. More than sentinels for daybreak, let Israel hope in the Lord, For with the Lord is mercy, with him is plenteous redemption, And he will redeem Israel from all its sins.
Psalm 9:19
For the needy will never be forgotten, nor will the hope of the afflicted ever fade.
Romans 8:24
For in hope we were saved. Now hope that sees for itself is not hope. For who hopes for what one sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.
Short Prayers for Hope
When it feels like nothing is going right for us, and we just can’t seem to catch a break, God is always near to us.
We might be searching for the right words to pray, but the truth is that God knows what is in our hearts even when our words fall short.
Use these short, simple prayers to ask the Holy Spirit to calm your heart and feel God’s love for you.
- Heavenly Father, please be with me today. My heart hurts. I feel overwhelmed, and it’s difficult for me to see the joy that only You provide. Still, I trust in You and place my problems in your hands. I pray that you can open my eyes to the ways in which Your love is embracing me. Amen.
- God, even though I don’t understand everything happening in my life, the one thing I know confidently is Your love for me. Look upon me, Your humble servant, in my moment of need. Help me feel the peace that only You provide. Help me remember that there is light at the end of the tunnel–Your warm light that will brighten even my darkest day. Amen
- Loving Father, the Bible tells us “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.” (Phillippians 4:6). So today I come to You in prayer. I turn to You, knowing Your power is infinitely stronger than my worries. My doubts. My struggles. Today and all days, Father, may I remember Your promise. In Jesus’s name I pray. Amen.
- I know You will never forsake me, God. I take this moment to spend with You as things around me seem uncertain. I feel lost and my worries consume me. But when I close my eyes and quietly think of You, I feel a second of peace. I pray that today, those seconds can become minutes or hours. That Your peace can drown out my doubts and inspire hope inside of me. Amen.
Hope and the Eucharist
When we need to be uplifted and reminded of God’s loving embrace, perhaps the best prayer we can turn to is the sacrament of the Eucharist.
Paul J. Waddell, professor of theology at St. Norbert College, writes that hope can be strengthened through the Eucharist because “at the Eucharist we remember that we, thanks to our baptism, have been incorporated into the story of God, a story that is much more promising and blessed than anything we could offer ourselves,”
When we receive Communion, we’re reminded that we are a part of God’s bigger plan.
This can give us hope amid our struggles, and so, too, can acknowledging the struggles of others in prayer.
Prayer for Hope–Praying for Others
Praying for others when we feel helpless can actually help us.
Studies have shown that helping others can help our own mental health. The same is true of our prayer lives.
Rita Buettner, a writer for Catholic Review, writes that praying for others “helps us feel connected to people and places and issues beyond ourselves. It opens our minds to the challenges that others are experiencing. It broadens our perspective. It helps us grow in gratitude and hope.”
When we pray for others, we draw nearer to them. That Communion with others–and with God–inspires hope.
So if you’re feeling hopeless, try lifting up others in prayer.
When we are still struggling and in need of hope and encouragement in difficult times, we can always turn to St. Jude.
St. Jude Novena
St. Jude is the patron saint of hopeless causes and desperate situations.
According to tradition, since Jude’s name is so close to that of Jesus’s betrayer, Judas, most people relied on other saints when asking for intercession.
Only the most desperate and hopeless turned to St. Jude, who stands ready to pray for us.
The St. Jude Novena spans nine days which, according to the Shrine of St. Jude, represent the nine days the Apostles prayed together between Jesus’s Ascension and Pentecost.
If you feel like your situation is without hope, remember that God will never abandon you. Consider learning how to pray the St. Jude Novena and join millions of other people who’d relied on St. Jude in their most challenging times.
More Prayers
Whether you’re needing strength, struggling to sleep, or seeking healing, God is ready to embrace you.
If you found our prayers for hope helpful, consider these prayers in other moments of need: