Prayer for a Prodigal: When You're Waiting for Someone to Come Home

Praying for a prodigal is one of the lonelier kinds of prayer. You’re interceding for someone who isn’t asking you to, who may not even know you’re still showing up for them in this way. And every time you bow your head, you feel the full weight of the gap between who they are right now and who you know they could be.

Whether it’s a child, a sibling, a spouse, or a friend, the person you’re holding in prayer right now is someone you love. And the loving is exactly what makes this hurt more.

The parable in Luke 15 doesn’t tell us how many months or years the father waited for his son to come back to him. It just tells us that when the son was still a great way off, the father saw him and ran to him. That father loved his son and never stopped watching the road. Neither does our Heavenly Father. He sits by us and holds us as we pray for our lost loved ones.

Before You Pray

Remember this. Abba doesn’t need us to have it together before we talk to Him. If there’s grief in this prayer, bring the grief. If there’s anger, bring that too. The Psalms are full of both, and they made it into Scripture. In Psalm 6:6, David watered his couch with his tears (grief), and in Psalm 109, he angrily asks God for revenge and vindication. It’s okay to bring every emotion we feel and place it at our Abba’s feet.

But don’t take the weight of your prodigal’s return onto yourself. You can love, pray, and keep the door open for them; but only God can do the turning. Don’t carry what was never yours to carry. Your job is simply to keep lifting them up in prayer, and trusting that one day the cord from their heart to heaven will start shining brightly again, and they find their way home.

A Prayer for a Prodigal

Abba,

I’m bringing (name) to You right now. You know him/her better than I do. You knew him/her before I ever did; and I know that You love him/her more fiercely than I’m even capable of.

Abba, this has been a really long road. There are days when hope comes as easily as the sunrise that you give me. And then there are days when I feel utterly discouraged, because I see no movement at all. But I Thank You, Father God, that my prayer doesn’t depend on my emotional state and never will. Thank You Abba that Your purposes for (name) aren’t derailed by what I feel on any given morning, or on any lonely evening.

I thank You for the evidence I’ve already seen — moments of grace, near-misses that looked like protection, small signs that Your hand is still on their life; and I choose to count those rather than the distance still left.

Lord, I ask for a breakthrough moment. Something that will give them a real encounter with You. Let there be a moment where he/she clearly sees You for who You actually are, and not the version of You he/she rejected or ran from. Let that encounter be unmistakable.

Dismantle every agreement he’s/she’s made with the enemy about who he/she is and what’s possible for him/her. Break the lies that are keeping him/her comfortable away from You. Bring the right people across their path — people with Your wisdom and grace, and not condemnation.

And in this oh-so-long waiting, hold me. Keep me from hardening my heart. Keep me loving others the way You love me: with the door open and my eyes on the road. Let me not be the obstacle between him/her coming home to You.

I trust You with (name), and I surrender him/her to You again, today.

In Jesus’ mighty and matchless name,
Amen.

For the Long Haul

The parable in the book of Luke says the prodigal “came to himself”. That waking-up moment happened inside him through the inner workings of the Holy Spirit. It wasn’t worked from any outside pressure. It’s important for us to remember that intercession isn’t about forcing a hand. All we can do is pray and keep the doors open so he/she finds the path back to a loving God who desperately wants them back.

Just keep praying. The father in the parable wasn’t passive while he waited. He was watching just like you. And so is God.

The Prayer Strategies for Prodigals & Lost Loved Ones course at SchooloftheSpirit.tv goes deep into how to pray strategically for someone who has walked away from faith. Worth bookmarking.

If you’re in the weekly prayer rhythm, the Monday morning prayer, Wednesday prayer, and Friday prayer are all here. And if financial struggle is tangled up in this season, the prayer for financial breakthrough might speak to you too.

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