Prayer for comfort when your heart is hurting

God of all comfort, I am not coming to You today with a plan or a list. I am coming because I hurt, and I do not know where else to go. You said that You are close to the brokenhearted and save those who are crushed in spirit. I am taking You at Your word.

You know what happened. You know the phone call, the diagnosis, the empty chair, the words that cannot be unsaid, the loneliness that sits on my chest at night. I am not going to pretend to be strong in front of You. Let me cry here, where it is safe.

Comfort me as a mother comforts her child, as Scripture says You do. Not with explanations, which I could not hear right now, but with Your presence. Let me feel, even faintly, that I am not alone in this room. Send Your Holy Spirit, whom Jesus called the Comforter, to sit with me in the silence.

Give me what I need to get through today: a little sleep, a kind word from someone, the strength to eat, one small reason to hope. Tomorrow I will ask again. If there is someone I need to let in, give me the courage to accept their help.

Jesus, You wept at the tomb of Your friend, so You know. Mary, you held your dead Son in your arms, so you know. Stay with me. And when this darkness lifts, as You promise it will, let me remember how You carried me, and let me comfort someone else with the comfort I received. Amen.