A First Aid Kit of Prayers: Prayers for when you can't find the words

When crisis strikes and words fail, where do you turn?

Sometimes we don't have the words to pray. Anxiety grips us. Grief overwhelms us. Burnout leaves us empty. In those moments, spontaneous prayer feels beyond reach—yet the longing to connect with God remains.

A First Aid Kit of Prayers is for exactly those moments.

This is not a devotional guide or a program to follow. It's a grab-bag of original written prayers for when your own words seem inadequate, when language fails, when you're too broken to pray but still want to reach out to God.

Inside you'll find prayers for:

• When you're overwhelmed
• When anxiety takes hold
• When you can't sleep
• When morning feels impossible
• When you're grieving
• When life is falling apart
• When you're burnt out
• When injustice rages
• When you need to cry out
• ...and more

Each prayer is honest, grounded, and accessible—naming the physical reality of crisis without offering cheap comfort or rushing through suffering. These prayers give permission for messy, desperate prayer. They remind you that the God who hears your cries is the same God who, in Christ, cried out from the cross.

Drawing from biblical tradition—including lament psalms, the Jesus Prayer, and Celtic spirituality—these prayers offer words when yours have run out. They are for 3 am anxiety, hospital waiting rooms, the morning you can't get out of bed, and the moment when everything falls apart.

Perfect for:

• Anyone experiencing anxiety, depression, or burnout
• Those walking through grief or loss
• People in spiritual wilderness or dark night of the soul
• Anyone who's been told to "just pray about it" but couldn't find words
• Spiritual directors, therapists, and pastoral caregivers looking for resources

Written by Jon Thurlow, author of Pilgrim Prayers for Every Day and Ancient Words, Living Prayer, this book emerged from his own seasons of struggle when spontaneous prayer felt impossible.

These prayers won't always fix what's broken or ease the pain. But they can give you words when yours have run out, and remind you that you are never alone—not in your suffering, not in the loving presence of the God who hears.

"In my suffering I cried out to you—the One who hears my prayers." — Paraphrase of Psalm 120