A Prayer for the Christian Woman Who Is Suffering in Silence
For the woman quietly carrying too much.
Dear Heavenly Father,
Today I’m praying for my sister who is suffering in silence.
She knows she’s blessed, so she daily dismisses her own pain.
Looking on, everything seems okay.
No one would know.
And they don’t know.
About today’s anxiety.
Yesterday’s grief.
Last year’s guilt.
Tomorrow’s fears.
Sometimes, even she questions her own experience.
Gaslights herself.
And some days, it’s easier to cope that way.
But the silence is quietly killing her.
Because invisible pain can still be fatal.
Like an emotional cancer no one knows about or talks about or does anything about.
Silently, it eats away everything that’s good and beautiful and life-giving inside of her.
Today, I pray for her to have the courage to say it out loud.
Write it down.
Look herself in the mirror and state the truth.
I pray for an advocate to interrupt the silence.
If she can’t find her voice, let someone else’s voice speak to her and for her.
Give her courage to not shy away when you pull back the curtain and reveal the pain. Let her meet it, face-to-face and eye-to-eye—knowing You’ve got her back.
Provide a soft place to land in the breaking.
Send loving hands and grace-shaped tools for the remaking.
Remind her that You “will compensate you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten” (Joel 2:24, ESV) and that You’re “doing a new thing” (Isaiah 43:9, ESV).
Center her heart in Your truth.
Bathe her tired mind with your renewing grace.
Don’t let my sister forget that You are the God who urged Your people to,
Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who have an anxious heart,
‘Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God
will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.’
Isaiah 35:3-5
Assure her that’s she so much stronger than she thinks.
And that when her strength fails, You will keep showing up.
Help her to imagine new beginnings.
Live out new habits.
Believe new narratives.
Let past failures meet with present favor.
Let’s hear the sound of laughter in the halls of her home and heart again.
It’s time for super-natural hope to greet earthly grief.
God of Angel Armies, remind her that the ultimate battle is already won.
And that means she will win this war, too.
I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Savior—
Amen.