Ezekiel was led out to a valley full of dry, scattered bones, about as lost a cause as an image can get. God asked him a strange question: can these bones live? Ezekiel didn’t know, but he obeyed anyway, spoke the word he was given, and watched bones rattle together, grow tendons and flesh, and finally breath, until an army stood where death had been.
These thirty verses are for the situation that feels beyond hope right now, the relationship, diagnosis, or circumstance everyone else has already written off.
Pray these over your specific lost cause by name, and let Ezekiel’s obedience, speaking even when the outcome looked impossible, be your model for praying boldly here.
Prayer for Lost Causes
1. Ezekiel 37:3-5 (NIV)
“He asked me, 'Son of man, can these bones live?' I said, 'Sovereign Lord, you alone know.' Then he said to me, 'Prophesy to these bones and say to them, Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!'”
Prayer: You alone know if this situation can still live, Lord.
Let me speak hope over it anyway, even without seeing the outcome.
Breathe life into what looks completely dead right now.
2. Luke 1:37 (NIV)
“For no word from God will ever fail.”
Prayer: Let this promise hold over my lost cause today.
Remind me your word doesn’t fail, even when circumstances suggest otherwise.
Give me confidence to keep praying instead of giving up.
3. Mark 10:27 (NIV)
“Jesus looked at them and said, 'With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.'”
Prayer: Let this be true over what feels impossible in my life right now.
Do what I genuinely cannot do on my own.
Turn this impossibility into a testimony of what only you can do.
4. Jeremiah 32:17 (NIV)
“Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.”
Prayer: Let nothing be too hard for you in this situation either.
Remind me of your power when my own feels completely spent.
Meet this hard thing with your outstretched arm.
5. Ezekiel 37:9-10 (NIV)
“Then he said to me, 'Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, "Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live."'”
Prayer: Breathe life into this specific situation the way you breathed into those bones.
Let what looks completely finished start to move again.
Bring breath where there’s currently only stillness.
6. Romans 4:17 (NIV)
“The God in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.”
Prayer: Let me trust you the way Abraham trusted, believing before I see.
Call into being what currently doesn’t exist yet.
Give life to what feels dead in my circumstances.
7. Matthew 19:26 (NIV)
“Jesus looked at them and said, 'With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.'”
Prayer: Let this promise cover the specific thing I’ve been calling impossible.
Do what feels entirely out of reach right now.
Show me your possibility where I’ve only seen dead ends.
8. Luke 18:27 (NIV)
“Jesus replied, 'What is impossible with man is possible with God.'”
Prayer: Meet my impossible thing with your possibility today.
Don’t let human limitation be the final word here.
Show up in a way that only you could explain.
9. Ezekiel 37:11-12 (NIV)
“Then he said to me: 'Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, "Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone." I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them.'”
Prayer: Let me speak this same hope over whatever feels dried up in my life.
Open whatever grave this situation has been buried in.
Bring it up and out into something living again.
10. Philippians 4:13 (NIV)
“I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”
Prayer: Let this strength cover what feels completely beyond me.
Give me endurance to keep hoping, even when it’s hard.
Do through me what I can’t do alone.
11. 2 Chronicles 20:12 (NIV)
“For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”
Prayer: I don’t know what to do about this situation either.
Let my eyes stay on you instead of the size of the problem.
Fight this battle the way you fought for Jehoshaphat.
12. Isaiah 43:19 (NIV)
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”
Prayer: Let something new spring up in this dead situation.
Open my eyes to what you’re already doing that I can’t yet see.
Make a way where right now there seems to be none.
13. Habakkuk 3:17-18 (NIV)
“Though the fig tree does not bud… yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”
Prayer: Let me rejoice even before this situation changes.
Give me the same steady trust Habakkuk had in his own hard season.
Let joy be possible, even without the outcome yet in hand.
14. Romans 8:28 (NIV)
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Prayer: Let this be true even for the thing that looks completely lost right now.
Work good out of what feels like waste or ruin.
Remind me you’re not finished with this yet.
15. Numbers 11:23 (NIV)
“The Lord answered Moses, 'Is the Lord's arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true.'”
Prayer: Let me trust your arm isn’t too short for this problem.
Show me what only you could accomplish here.
Let this become a story I get to tell later.
16. Genesis 18:14 (NIV)
“Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
Prayer: Let nothing be too hard for you in this specific case.
Give me Sarah’s kind of surprise when the answer finally comes.
Meet impossibility with your own timing, not mine.
17. Isaiah 40:29 (NIV)
“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.”
Prayer: Give me strength to keep hoping when everything says stop.
Increase whatever power remains in this seemingly hopeless situation.
Meet weariness with something stronger than my own effort.
18. Psalm 46:1 (NIV)
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”
Prayer: Be my refuge specifically in this lost cause.
Show up as ever-present, not distant or delayed.
Give strength for holding on to hope this hard.
19. Jeremiah 33:3 (NIV)
“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”
Prayer: I’m calling to you about this specific lost cause today.
Answer with something I couldn’t have figured out on my own.
Show me what’s unsearchable and beyond my current understanding.
20. John 11:39-40 (NIV)
“'Take away the stone,' he said. 'But, Lord,' said Martha, 'by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.' Then Jesus said, 'Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?'”
Prayer: Let me not focus on how far gone this looks, like Martha did.
Remind me to believe first, before I see the glory.
Take away whatever stone is blocking what you want to do.
21. Ephesians 3:20 (NIV)
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”
Prayer: Do immeasurably more than I’m even asking for here.
Work beyond what I can currently imagine possible.
Let your power be at work even when mine has run out.
22. Luke 1:37 (NIV)
“For no word from God will ever fail.”
Prayer: Let your word stand over this situation, regardless of appearances.
Remind me failure isn’t part of your vocabulary here.
Give me confidence to keep speaking hope, not resignation.
23. Psalm 71:20 (NIV)
“Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again.”
Prayer: Restore this situation the way you’ve restored others before.
Bring me up from the depths this has taken me to.
Let restoration be real here, not just wishful thinking.
24. Zechariah 4:6 (NIV)
“'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the Lord Almighty.”
Prayer: Let this outcome come from your Spirit, not human effort alone.
Remind me my strategies aren’t the deciding factor here.
Move in a way only you could explain.
25. Isaiah 41:10 (NIV)
“Fear not, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.”
Prayer: Take away the fear that comes with hoping for something this far gone.
Remind me you’re with me, not distant or unaware.
Replace dismay with confidence today.
26. Matthew 17:20 (NIV)
“'Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, "Move from here to there," and it will move.'”
Prayer: Let my small faith be enough to move this mountain.
Grow my trust even if it starts tiny.
Do something with the little faith I currently have.
27. Psalm 27:13-14 (NIV)
“I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart.”
Prayer: Let me stay confident of your goodness even in this waiting.
Strengthen my heart through however long this takes.
Show me your goodness before this is fully resolved.
28. Ezekiel 37:14 (NIV)
“I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken.”
Prayer: Put your Spirit into this lost cause and let it live.
Settle it into something stable and good.
Let this become undeniable proof of what you can do.
29. Genesis 50:20 (NIV)
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.”
Prayer: Let whatever seems ruined here still be redeemed for good.
Take even the worst parts of this story and use them somehow.
Turn this into something I can point to later as evidence of your goodness.
30. Revelation 21:5 (NIV)
“He who was seated on the throne said, 'I am making everything new!'”
Prayer: Make this specific situation new, the way only you can.
Let nothing be too far gone for your renewal.
Show me this same newness in what I’ve almost given up on.
Conclusion
The valley Ezekiel walked into was full of bones that had been dead so long they were dry, no lingering possibility left by any human measure. And yet an army stood up out of that valley, because God spoke, and Ezekiel was willing to speak too, even without knowing the outcome in advance.
If the lost cause you’re carrying is a specific relationship, the miracle prayer for broken relationships speaks more directly to that particular ache.
For an illness or diagnosis that feels beyond hope, pair this list with the prayer for the impossible request or the novena prayer for impossible requests.