Despairing? These Four Prayers Ask God for Hope. Are you struggling to pray? It’s not uncommon when despairing. It may not feel like it when you are in your dark cloud of doubt and feeling abandoned, but despairing is a sin. The only way out of despair is praying for God to give you hope. On your own, you can’t just become hopeful, and you won’t as long as you are struggling to pray and giving in to that temptation by not praying.
We are going to spend the next 15 minutes in mental prayer. I want you to begin by trying to open your heart to God. Just allow yourself to be vulnerable and speak from your heart. Then humbly ask for the grace to be healed and to have the ability to hope again. It takes a really big leap of faith to overcome despair, but nothing is impossible for God.
If you have never had an intimate relationship with Jesus, that’s okay. We will reach out right now with four prayers that ask God for hope. Together we will ask Jesus to give you the hope you need to overcome the despair you are suffering from. Hopelessness is an overwhelming feeling, but no feeling can compare with the peace of knowing that God loves you and is with you in your suffering.
If you are despairing and struggling to pray, try these four prayers that ask God for hope:
The Bible Tells us the Lord is With Us
Make a Movie in Your Mind...
In our first prayer we will participate in divine reading. We will begin by looking at a passage from the book of Jeremiah. Before you read this passage slowly and meditate on the words, we need to set the scene.
Come with me to visit Jeremiah. Did you know that he is known as the weeping prophet? Jeremiah preached to the people of the Kingdom of Judah for decades, warning them to stop committing sin, especially idolatry. But they didn’t listen. Right before Jeremiah writes this comforting letter we are about to read, many of the most talented and brightest of his people were captured and taken into bondage in Babylon. I want you to picture Jeremiah writing this letter from Egypt, where he was taken against his will by some of the people of Judah.
Pause when a word or phrase speaks to your heart and then pause for a moment and speak from your heart to the Lord about your own problem with despairing. Put it in perspective. Consider Jeremiah’s situation and how he responded in his suffering.
Despairing?
When We Ask God for Hope We find it
Jeremiah 29:11-14
For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, plans for your welfare and not for woe, so as to give you a future of hope. When you call me, and come and pray to me, I will listen to you.
When you look for me, you will find me. Yes, when you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me and I will change your lot; I will gather you together from all the nations and all the places to which I have banished you and bring you back to the place from which I have exiled you.
Start with Love
I want you to be hopeful, healed, and overcome this dark moment in your life, especially if you are struggling to pray. Let’s begin with a prayer that will ask the Holy Spirit to come and dwell with us. If you can pray this prayer from your heart and trust in the Lord, he will heal you of your despair and give you a heart full of hope for the future. Pray this prayer daily.
Despairing?
Prayer to the holy Spirit
by Saint Pope John Paul II
Holy Spirit,
I ask you for the gift of wisdom to better know you and your divine perfections,
For the gift of understanding to clearly discern the spirit of the mysteries of the holy faith.
For the gift of counsel that I may live according to the principles of this faith,
For the gift of knowledge that I may look for counsel in you and that I may always find it in you,
for the gift of fortitude that no fear or earthly preoccupations would ever separate me from you,
For the gift of piety that I may always serve your majesty with a filial love,
For the gift of fear of the Lord that I may dread sin, which offends you, O my God.
AMEN.
Now that we’ve asked the Holy Spirit to come we are ready to reflect for a moment on the sin of despair and the virtue of hope. Let’s look at what the Catechism says:
When God reveals Himself and calls him, man cannot fully respond to the divine love by his own powers. He must hope that God will give him the capacity to love Him in return and to act in conformity with the commandments of charity. Hope is the confident expectation of divine blessing and the beatific vision of God; it is also the fear of offending God's love and of incurring punishment.
The first commandment is also concerned with sins against hope, namely, despair and presumption: By despair, man ceases to hope for his personal salvation from God, for help in attaining it or for the forgiveness of his sins. Despair is contrary to God's goodness, to his justice - for the Lord is faithful to his promises - and to his mercy.
Be Completely Real...
I want you to imagine Jesus right now. Put your hand on your heart for a moment and open it wide to receive God’s grace. Imagine Jesus placing his hand on your heart and giving you a divine embrace. Tell him thank you and say that you love him. Admit that you are despairing and struggling to pray, but you know these four prayers that ask God for help will be answered. You know Jesus will fill your heart and mind with hope.
Now we are ready to open our hearts to pray with deep love the following prayer:
Despairing?
Prayer from My Heart to Overcome Despairing
Jesus,
I know that you love me and it is a sin for me to despair. I need your help. There is something deeply wrong with me and I can’t overcome this deep pain I feel in my heart. I have past sins that I can’t forgive myself for, even though I have confessed them. Deep down I believe in my heart that you couldn’t possibly love me or forgive me for what I have done and for what I have become. I am deeply ashamed and this shame gives me a horrible feeling of despair that I am incapable of overcoming on my own.
I don’t know what to do. My only hope is in you. Jesus, please, I beg you, even though I know I don’t deserve your mercy or your love, I am in desperate need of it. Please help me to overcome this sin of despairing and to have hope once again that I can be redeemed and be saved by your grace. I need faith to believe you have forgiven me and the grace to forgive myself. Please, Jesus, take away the sin of despair and give me the grace I need to overcome it.
Lord, let me learn to be holy and righteous, full of love and devotion for you and for your Church. Jesus, please give me a pure heart and help me grow in the virtue of hope. Thank you Lord for every gift you have ever given me in life.
AMEN.
When we are despairing and struggling to pray there are two things that help us overcome our sadness. The first is to pray for hope and the other is to help others. When we are able to look outside of ourselves to the needs of others it helps us change our focus from what we lack toward what others need. It helps us have charity.
Thank you for joining us in prayer today. I want you to know that we have a prayer community at I Am Jesus. I invite you to join. As a community we support and pray for each other.
Despairing?
Prayer from My Heart to Give Hope to Others
Jesus,
You say that when two or more are gathered in your name, you are with us. Jesus, in your name I lift up every person who has visited this page and is struggling to pray. Thank you Jesus for healing our depression and helping us overcome our despair.
I ask you to give us the grace we need to grow in virtue and holiness, especially in the ability to hope. Let us love and serve you in our lives and through the people we love and care for physically, mentally, or spiritually. Help us control our thoughts, our words, and our actions so that they all glorify you and are filled with faith, hope, and love. Guide us all by your Holy Spirit and give us the strength to overcome every temptation from the evil one, especially the temptation to despair and the desire to turn inward and think only about ourselves.
We ask all this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
AMEN.
Now What?
Today you took a leap of faith and you made a start. I encourage you to take the next step. If you haven’t been to confession in a while, make a plan to go this week. Unconfessed sin is one of the main reasons why people find themselves struggling to pray. If you are not in the habit of praying every day, please learn how to use our website as a mobile app and begin learning how to pray mental prayer. Plan to pray at least 15 minutes every morning and 15 minutes every night. Use some of that time to read Scripture.
Join New Online Prayer Community
Our Community Allows You To:
- Join online groups
- Ask questions
- Learn about the faith
- Send messages
- Make prayer requests
- Be prayed for
- Receive email notifications as soon as someone responds to you
Need Support?
Do you need support? Did you want to be part of a safe online space where you can post questions and share experiences with others?
Do you feel isolated? Get the support you need in our new prayer community. On April 1, 2025 we officially opened registration. Check out this link to learn more about our vision.
Membership is free. It is private. Only logged in users can access it, so you can’t find it on search engines. Everyone is welcome to join. If you’d like to see our rules for posting, visit this link.
Registration is easy. We just ask for an email address, a username (this can’t be changed, so choose wisely) and a display name. Once registered you will need to verify your email address to login with your username and password.