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The first night somewhere new always sounds strange. The tap drips in a different rhythm. A neighbour’s door closes and you don’t yet know whose it is. Maybe it’s a whole house. Maybe it’s a flat, a rented room, a corner of a relative’s place, or a bed in a shelter while you wait for something better. Whatever it is, you’re standing in it wondering if it will ever feel like home.
If you came here looking for a prayer for a new home, here’s something good: you don’t have to write one from scratch. Jesus already gave the words. He handed them to His friends for exactly this moment, standing at a door they had never walked through before.
Prayer for a New Home: The Words Jesus Gave
In Luke 10, Jesus sends seventy of His followers out in pairs, into towns He planned to visit. He tells them what to pack (almost nothing) and what to say when they reach a house. The very first thing out of their mouths was supposed to be this:
“And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house. And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again.” (Luke 10:5-6, KJV)
Notice the word first. Before the bags come off. Before anyone asks where to sit. Peace is the opening word spoken over a home.
That’s a prayer for a new home in six words. But the more closely you look at who said it, and how, the more it has to say to you tonight.
The People Who Said It Didn’t Own a Home
Here’s the detail most house blessings skip. Look at the verse right before:
“Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way.” (Luke 10:4, KJV)
No purse. No bag. Not even a spare pair of sandals. The people Jesus trusted to bless houses were travellers who owned nothing. They weren’t blessing their own property. They were guests, arriving at someone else’s door, and the first thing they gave was peace.
That turns the usual picture upside down. We tend to think a house blessing belongs to the owner, with the keys, the deed, the finished rooms. In Luke 10 it belongs to the person with the least. So if you’re renting, or sharing, or sleeping on a relative’s sofa, or living in one room you didn’t choose, you are not outside this prayer. You’re standing exactly where the first people who prayed it stood.
“Peace Be to This House” Was an Everyday Hello
Open an old printed King James Bible to Luke 10:5 and you may notice the word be is in italics. The translators did that to mark words they added so the English would read smoothly. In the Greek, Jesus’ instruction is shorter: “Peace to this house.”
That’s because it was a greeting. “Peace” (shalom in Hebrew) was how people said hello. You can read more about what shalom really means, but the short version is this: it’s much bigger than quiet. It means wholeness, everything as it should be.
And the house greeting was already old. Roughly a thousand years before Luke 10, David sent young men to a wealthy farmer named Nabal with this message:
“Peace be both to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast.” (1 Samuel 25:6, KJV)
Nabal refused it rudely. A little later one of his own servants describes him this way: “he is such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him” (1 Samuel 25:17, KJV). Hold on to that phrase, son of. It comes back.
So Jesus didn’t invent new religious words for His followers. He took the most ordinary greeting at the door and told them to mean it. That’s freeing. A prayer for a new home doesn’t need special language. It can be as plain as a hello, as long as it’s honest.
The Peace Rests on People, Not on Walls
Now back to verse 6: “if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it.”
“Son of peace” is a Hebrew way of describing a person by what fills them. Nabal was a “son of Belial,” a worthless, impossible man. A “son of peace” is someone open to peace, someone ready to receive it. The condition Jesus gives isn’t about the building at all. It isn’t about the size of the rooms, the neighbourhood, or whether the paint is fresh. It’s about the people inside.
That matters when you pray over a new place. You aren’t asking God to protect bricks. You’re asking for peace to settle on whoever sleeps there, eats there, argues there, and comes home tired there.
And the last clause, “it shall turn to you again,” means peace offered sincerely never gets lost. (If you’re shopping for someone else’s move, there’s a whole piece on that idea: a housewarming gift that begins with “Peace be to this house”.) But read it from the inside of a hard living situation and it says something else too. Maybe you’ve moved in with family and the tension moved in with you. Maybe your housemates don’t care about any of this. You can’t force peace onto a household. What Jesus promises is that you won’t lose yours for offering it.
“Go Not From House to House”
There’s one more line, and it’s the one almost nobody quotes:
“And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.” (Luke 10:7, KJV)
Stay. Eat what’s on the table. Don’t keep looking for a better house down the street.
That’s the part of the blessing you do with your feet. A place starts to become home when you stop treating it as temporary in your heart, even if it is temporary on paper. You learn which floorboard creaks. You share a meal with whoever is there. You settle.
What This Means for Your New Home
Put the four pieces together and a new home blessing looks different from what you might expect:
- You’re qualified. The first people to pray it owned nothing but the clothes they wore.
- It’s simple. It began as a greeting. Plain words, honestly meant, are enough.
- It’s about people. The peace rests on the ones who live there, not on the walls.
- It’s something you live. Stay, eat together, stop searching for the next door.
A new home isn’t blessed because it’s finished. It’s blessed because someone stood at the door and asked for peace first.
A Simple Blessing to Say at Your Door
Stand at the entrance, or just inside it. Say it out loud if you can, even quietly:
Peace be to this house.
Peace on everyone who sleeps here and everyone who visits.
Let the people in these rooms be people of peace.
And where peace isn’t welcome yet, let it come back to me and keep me gentle.
Amen.
If you’d like help shaping a prayer for your own situation, a first home, a shared room, a move you didn’t choose, you can talk it through with our free Prayer Anywhere assistant (it opens in ChatGPT).
Actions to Take
- Say the first word first. Next time you walk through your door, before you put anything down, say “Peace to this house” under your breath. It takes three seconds.
- Name the people. Write down the names of everyone who lives with you or visits often. Pray one sentence of peace over each name.
- Eat at the table you have. Within the next few days, share one ordinary meal or cup of tea in your new place with someone, a housemate, a neighbour, a relative. That’s how Luke 10:7 settles a home.
Journaling Prompts
- When you picture “home,” what are you really hoping to feel there?
- Who in your new living situation is hardest to wish peace on, and why?
- Where are you still living as if you’re about to leave?
Peace doesn’t wait for the boxes to be unpacked. Say it at the door.
A Prayer for Tonight
God, this place still feels new and a little strange, and I’m not sure yet if it will feel like home. I don’t own much, but I can do what Jesus’ friends did at the door, and ask for peace first. Let your peace rest on everyone who lives here with me, even the ones who make it hard. Where it isn’t received, help me keep my own peace and stay gentle. Teach me to stay, to settle, and to find you in the ordinary rooms. Amen.
Discussion Question
Do you think a home becomes “home” mostly because of the place, or mostly because of the people in it? Share what you think in the comments. We’d love to hear from you.
Share This
- The first people Jesus sent to bless homes owned nothing, not even spare shoes. You don’t need a deed to pray over where you live. #PeaceBeToThisHouse
- “Peace be to this house” was an everyday hello in Jesus’ time. He told His friends to say it first, at every door, and mean it. I’m going to try that at mine.
- Moved into somewhere that doesn’t feel like home yet? Luke 10:5-7: say peace first, pray for the people, and stay. That’s the whole house blessing.
Questions About Prayer for a New Home
What is a good prayer for a new home?
A simple prayer for a new home can start with the words Jesus gave His followers in Luke 10:5: “Peace be to this house.” Follow it by asking God for peace on every person who lives in or visits the home, since Luke 10:6 describes that peace resting on a “son of peace,” meaning a person open to it. The prayer does not need formal wording to be real.
What did Jesus say when entering a house?
In Luke 10:5 (KJV), Jesus told the seventy followers He sent out: “And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house.” Matthew 10:12-13 records a parallel instruction to greet the house and let peace come upon it if the house is worthy. It was the first thing they were to say on arrival.
Can I bless a home I rent or share?
Yes. The followers Jesus sent in Luke 10 carried no purse, no bag and no spare shoes (Luke 10:4), and they spoke the blessing “Peace be to this house” over homes that belonged to other people. Nothing in the passage limits a house blessing to owners, so a rented flat, a shared room or a relative’s home can be blessed the same way.
What does “if not, it shall turn to you again” mean in Luke 10:6?
In Luke 10:6, Jesus says that if a “son of peace” is in the house, the peace spoken over it will rest there; if not, “it shall turn to you again.” The meaning is that a sincerely offered blessing of peace is never lost. If the household does not receive it, the peace returns to the person who offered it.
Do I need to say a house blessing out loud?
No rule requires it, but Luke 10:5 describes the blessing as something spoken aloud (“first say, Peace be to this house”). Many people find that saying a short blessing out loud at the doorway of a new home helps mark the start of living there. A quiet whisper counts just as much as a full voice.
