Prayer Guide: Loss, Life, and Resurrected Purpose

On the other side of loss is a resurrected purpose, new vocation, a fresh work for life. As our society continues to find itself in a collective “dark night of the soul”, there is a great need for transformed guides. It is as followers of Jesus learn to name and notice their losses well that our souls are enlarged by encountering God redemptively coming in the midst of the pain.

We emerge from seasons of darkness with a new inner authority to say “I know what God can do with pain,” and this allows the inevitable “deaths” we will experience in life to become transformational rather than terminal. Far from slapping a happy face on our pain, this journey begins with an honest naming and genuine feeling of the loss. We meet Jesus in the darkness and sickness, just as Peter’s mother-in-law did at her most feverish.

This prayer guide walks you through the process of charting your losses then looking with fresh imagination for how God might raise you up to fresh purpose on the other side of pain. We encourage you to take 30 minutes this week and use this worksheet to guide a time of journaling and prayer.