These 50 supernatural prayers for a loved one battling alcohol are for the person on the other side of it. Not the one drinking. The one who checks the recycling, who counts how many are left in the fridge, who can tell from the first three words on the phone how the evening is going to go.
That is an exhausting way to live, and it is rarely spoken about honestly. You love someone who is hurting themselves, you cannot make them stop, and most of the advice you get assumes you have more control than you actually have. Prayer for an alcoholic in your family is not a substitute for real help. It is the thing that keeps you standing while you pursue it.
The prayers below cover four things: your loved one, the hold the addiction has on them, your own heart in the middle of it, and the practical breakthrough you are asking God for. Pray them as often as you need to. Nothing here requires you to have already forgiven, already coped, or already found peace with it.
Prayers For the Person You Love
1. Father Lord, in the name of Jesus, I bring my loved one before You, and I ask You to reach them where I cannot.
2. Lord, protect the life of my loved one. Keep them from the accident, the overdose, and the decision made while they are not themselves, in Jesus’ name.
3. Father, let my loved one see clearly, even for one honest hour, what this is costing them and everyone in my family, in Jesus’ name.
4. I declare that my loved one is not beyond Your reach and not too far gone for Your mercy, in the name of Jesus.
5. Lord, restore the health of my loved one. Heal their body from what the alcohol has already done to it, in the name of Jesus.
6. Father, guard my loved one from the shame that keeps them drinking to escape that same shame, in Jesus’ name.
7. I ask You to surround my loved one with the right people, and to remove from their life every influence that keeps them in this, in the mighty name of Jesus.
8. Lord, let my loved one remember who they were before this took hold, and let that memory become a hunger for freedom.
9. Father, meet my loved one in the moment they are most alone with it, and let them know they are not abandoned by You, in the mighty name of Jesus.
10. I pray for the day they will ask for help, and I ask You to bring it nearer, in Jesus’ name.
Prayers To Break the Hold of Addiction
11. Every chain of addiction binding the person I love, be broken by the power of God, in the name of Jesus.
12. I command the craving that drives my loved one back to the bottle to lose its grip and its power over them, in Jesus’ name.
13. Father, expose every lie the addiction tells my loved one about needing it to cope, and let truth cut through it, in Jesus’ name.
14. Every spirit of bondage operating in the life of my loved one, be uprooted and cast out, in the mighty name of Jesus.
15. Lord, break the pattern of relapse in my loved one. Let the next attempt not end the way the last ones did.
16. I break every generational pattern of alcohol dependence running through this family line, in the name of Jesus.
17. Father, disconnect my loved one from every place, habit, and companion that pulls them back into it, in the name of Jesus.
18. I declare that whom the Son sets free is free indeed, and I stand on that over the life of my loved one, in Jesus’ name.
19. Every stronghold of denial keeping my loved one from admitting the truth, be dismantled by the power of God.
20. Lord, let the blood of Jesus speak freedom over the person I love, in the mighty name of Jesus.
Prayers For Your Own Heart In the Middle Of It
21. Father, I am tired. Strengthen me, because I have been carrying this for a long time, in Jesus’ name.
22. Lord, guard my heart from the bitterness that keeps trying to take root in me, in the mighty name of Jesus.
23. I reject every false guilt that tells me I caused this or that I could have stopped it, in the name of Jesus.
24. Father, give me wisdom to know the difference between helping them and enabling them, in Jesus’ name.
25. Lord, give me the courage to set a boundary and the peace to keep it without hating myself for it.
26. Every spirit of fear that has me waiting for the next phone call, be silenced, in Jesus’ name.
27. Father, restore my sleep and quiet the vigilance I have not been able to switch off.
28. Lord, help me love them without losing myself, and hold hope without living on false hope, in the name of Jesus.
29. I ask You to protect my own health, my own work, and my own relationships from being consumed by this, in the mighty name of Jesus.
30. Father, forgive me for the times I have handled this badly, and free me from replaying them.
31. Lord, give me people who understand this. Break the isolation that shame has built around my family, in the mighty name of Jesus.
32. I declare that my identity is not defined by their addiction, in the name of Jesus.
33. Father, teach me to grieve what this has already taken without giving up on what You can still restore.
34. Lord, when I have nothing left to give, be the strength I do not have, in Jesus’ name.
35. Every weight of resentment I have picked up in this season, I lay it down before You now, in Jesus’ name.
Prayers For Children and the Wider Family
36. Father, cover the children in this home. Let what they are witnessing not become what they repeat, in Jesus’ name.
37. Lord, heal every wound this has already put into my children, and let none of it become their inheritance, in Jesus’ name.
38. I break every cycle that would pass this addiction down another generation, in the mighty name of Jesus.
39. Father, give me the words to explain what is happening to those who are too young to understand it.
40. Lord, restore peace to our home. Let this house stop feeling like a place where everyone is waiting, in the name of Jesus.
41. I command every spirit of division and destruction assigned against my family to be scattered, in the name of Jesus.
42. Father, protect my marriage and my other relationships from collapsing under the strain of this.
Prayers For Breakthrough, Recovery and Restoration
43. Lord, bring my loved one to the point of surrender, and let it come with mercy rather than through disaster, in Jesus’ name.
44. Father, open the right door of treatment for my loved one and provide everything my family needs to walk through it, in the mighty name of Jesus.
45. I declare that recovery is possible for them, that people do come back from this, and that my loved one will be one of them, in the name of Jesus.
46. Lord, sustain my loved one through withdrawal, through the hardest weeks, and through every day they will have to choose this again, in Jesus’ name.
47. Father, give my loved one a reason to stay sober that is stronger than the reason they drink, in the mighty name of Jesus.
48. I ask You to restore what has already been lost: the trust, the years, the relationships, and the opportunities, in the name of Jesus.
49. Lord, let the story of my loved one become the thing that helps someone else out of this one day.
50. Father Lord, in the name of Jesus, I place the person I love entirely in Your hands, because I have done everything I know how to do and it has not been enough. Break every chain of addiction over their life, silence every craving, expose every lie, and bring them to real and lasting freedom. Strengthen me while I wait, guard my heart from bitterness and my mind from fear, and protect the children who are watching. I declare that this addiction will not have the final word in my family, that what has been broken can be restored, and that I will yet see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen.
Scriptures To Hold Onto While You Wait
Praying for family and friends in addiction is a long assignment, and it needs verses that survive disappointment. Psalm 27:13-14 is written by someone who admits he would have lost heart had he not believed he would see God’s goodness. That is the honest version of hope, and it is enough.
John 8:36 is the freedom verse to stand on, and Joel 2:25 is the restoration one: God promises to restore the years the locusts have eaten, which is a specific promise about time that appeared to be wasted.
For your own protection, Proverbs 4:23 tells you to guard your heart above everything else, which in this situation is instruction rather than sentiment. And Galatians 6:9 speaks to the weariness of doing the right thing for years without seeing the result.
What To Do Alongside Praying
Prayer and practical action are not competitors. If your loved one is willing to get help, help them get it today rather than waiting for a better moment, because willingness in addiction is often short-lived. In the United States, the SAMHSA National Helpline is free, confidential and available 24 hours a day on 1-800-662-4357. In the UK, Drinkaware and your GP are reasonable first steps. Al-Anon exists specifically for the family members of people who drink, and most people who attend say they wish they had gone years earlier.
If there is any risk to your safety or a child’s safety, that takes priority over everything else on this page, and seeking protection is not a failure of faith or of love.
Other prayers on this site that pair with these: prayers for addiction recovery written for the person in the addiction themselves, aggressive prayers against every chain of addiction, prayers for strength during difficult times, and prayers for a troubled marriage where the drinking has damaged the relationship.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the alcoholics prayer?
Most people mean the Serenity Prayer, which is used widely in Alcoholics Anonymous and other twelve step groups: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. It was written by Reinhold Niebuhr and it works as well for the family member as it does for the person drinking, because the hardest part of loving an alcoholic is precisely the line between what you can change and what you cannot. Some groups also use the Third Step Prayer, which is a prayer of surrender of the will.
What would Jesus say to an alcoholic?
Based on how He consistently treated people whose lives were visibly falling apart, He would not lead with condemnation. Jesus was accused of spending too much time with drunkards and sinners, and He never once denied the charge. What He offered such people was dignity first and change second, in that order. He also did not pretend the problem was not a problem. The pattern in the Gospels is direct honesty about the sin combined with complete refusal to write off the person, which is a very difficult combination for families to hold and a good thing to pray for.
Who is the saint to pray to for alcoholism?
In Catholic tradition, Saint Monica is associated with praying for a family member for many years, and Venerable Matt Talbot is specifically the patron of those struggling with alcohol. Saint Jude is often invoked for desperate cases. If you are from a Protestant background, the practice is to pray directly to God through Jesus Christ, who Scripture describes as the one mediator between God and people. Either way, the substance of what you are asking is the same, and the prayers on this page are written to be prayed directly to God.
What is a good prayer for staying sober?
For someone in recovery, the most useful prayers are short, daily and specific to the next twenty-four hours rather than to a lifetime. Something like “Father, keep me sober today. Not forever, today. Take the craving when it comes, and give me something stronger to hold onto, in Jesus’ name” matches how recovery is actually lived. Points 46 and 47 above are written for this. If you are praying for someone else’s sobriety, pray them daily rather than only in a crisis.
Holding On
You may have prayed about this for years already, and the temptation is to read the promise of restoration as something meant for other families. It is not. God has not stopped working on this simply because you cannot see the working.
Keep praying, keep the boundaries you have set, and keep getting support for yourself as well as for them. The person you love is not a lost cause, and neither are you.