A prayer you can pray right now
A Prayer for My Best Friend
A best friend is a rare gift, the person who knows the unedited version of you and stays anyway. They have seen you at your worst and celebrated you at your best, held your secrets, and shown up when it counted. Maybe your best friend is walking through something hard right now and you feel it almost as your own. Maybe you simply want to thank God for a friendship that has become a kind of family. Either way, one of the deepest things you can do for a friend like this is pray for them. Lift your best friend to the Lord, who is the truest friend of all.
“A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”Proverbs 18:24
“A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”Proverbs 17:17
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”John 15:13
“Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.”1 Thessalonians 5:11
A prayer you can pray
Father, thank You for my best friend. You knew I needed this person, and You gave them to me. Thank You for every laugh, every hard conversation, every time they showed up when I needed them most. Bless them today. Guard their health, steady their heart, and give them joy that goes deep. In whatever they are carrying, be near; let them feel that they are not alone. Help me to be the kind of friend who loves at all times, who comforts and builds them up rather than tearing down. Deepen our friendship in a way that draws us both closer to You. And be to them the Friend who sticks closer than any other, closer even than I can. In the name of Jesus, amen.
How to pray this
Pray for your best friend with the intimate knowledge only you have; you know their fears, their dreams, and the thing they are too proud to ask for. Proverbs speaks of a friend who sticks closer than a brother, and of one who loves at all times, so ask God to help you be that friend and to bless your friend with such love. Paul told the Thessalonians to comfort and edify one another, so let your friendship be a place of building up, not just venting. Where your friend is struggling, remember that Jesus called laying down your life for a friend the greatest love, and small daily sacrifices are how that love usually looks. Pray for them, and then show up for them.
The One who hears this prayer
Jesus called His disciples friends, not servants, and He said there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends, then He went and did exactly that. He knows the joy of true friendship and the pain of being let down by friends, since His own scattered when He needed them most, and He forgave them and loved them still. When you pray for your best friend, you pray to the One who defines friendship by faithfulness. He is near to your friend, and He offers Himself as the Friend who will never leave, the one bond that outlasts even the closest human love.
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Questions people ask
How do I pray for a best friend who is going through something I cannot fix?
Accept first that you are not meant to fix it, only to walk with them through it. Pray that God would be near to them in a way you cannot be, that He would carry the weight that is crushing them, and that He would give you wisdom to know when to speak and when to simply stay. Then keep showing up. Your steady presence, plus your prayers, is often exactly what they need, even when you have no answers to offer.
Is it strange to pray for a friend who does not share my faith?
Not at all. You are not imposing anything; you are quietly asking God to bless someone you love. Pray for their good, their peace, and their sense of being cared for, and pray that God's kindness would draw them. Let your prayers make you a better, more patient friend rather than a preachy one. The best witness to a friend outside the faith is usually a love that is consistent, unselfish, and real.
How can I pray for a friendship that is drifting apart?
Pray honestly about it. Ask God to show you whether the drift needs mending or gentle acceptance, since some friendships change with seasons of life. If it is worth fighting for, pray for the courage to reach out and the humility to own your part. Ask God to rekindle what has cooled. And thank Him for what the friendship has been, holding it with gratitude rather than grasping, whatever its future holds.