Everyday Prayers Series

Do you ever feel like you don’t know what to pray at Christmastime? As the calendar turns from November to December, do you think, “There’s so much to do! How am I going to celebrate this important season with my family when I am already weary?”

Author Stacey Thacker takes you on a light-filled journey in this thirty-one-day devotional and reflective journal, Everyday Prayers for Christmas: The Light that Was and Is and Is to Come. She will walk you through Scriptures and offer prayers of hope written especially for your heart to ponder during this Christmas season.

Moms know all too well that God doesn’t promise an easy road for us—or our kids. As much as we’d love to protect them from heartaches, it just isn’t possible. This is especially true during the school year, when they are introduced to new teachers, new classmates, new concepts, and maybe even a new school that seems big and frightening.

Jesus tells us, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). With this reassurance, we try to reassure our children that no matter what, God is there and He’s on their side.

And we pray.

Rachael Adams was sitting in a church pew one Sunday morning when a love offering envelope caught her eye. She sensed the Lord whisper to her heart, “You are My love offering. I’ve given you My love. Now how are you going to give My love to those around you?” Rachael’s heart overflowed; she felt a burning desire to help others feel God’s precious gift.

In Everyday Prayers for Love: Learning to Love God, Others, and Even Yourself, Rachael extends the tender invitation from a loving God to His beloved. She explores the concept of biblical love and then guides readers through practical ways to live out love for others.

What is joy? We can receive fleeting moments of it when we watch sunlight break through the clouds, or see a little child laugh as he blows apart the fluff of a spent dandelion. But there is only one source of true, lasting joy—and that’s our Savior, Jesus.

During a season of unknowns, God opened His Word to author Gina L. Smith and taught her His definition of joy so that she could experience it deep in her heart. He helped her realize that she had been finding joy in His blessings, rather than in Him, the source of those blessings. And she learned how to “count it all joy” (James 1:2) come what may.

How do you pray for peace when it seems like your whole life is spinning out of control?

Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27).

Brooke says Jesus does not simply give us peace; He is our peace. He is “our refuge in the storm, a place where we can run to get strength, comfort, and truth to see us through whatever troubled circumstances would come our way.” This peace offered by our dear Lord can be ours if we just pray.

Author Brooke McGlothlin notes there’s an old joke that says, “Don’t ask God for patience. He’ll answer by testing yours.”

It’s true to some degree, she says. “I don’t know that God is sitting around in heaven just waiting to test our resolve, but parenting, and the Christian life itself, is fundamentally built on trusting something we can’t always see…a master plan that reveals itself little by little and often takes turns we couldn’t predict.”

But it’s possible to learn how to wait for God’s perfect timing, even when it seems like we’ve been waiting forever.

Life rarely goes as planned, particularly when we rely on our own plans rather than God’s. So when things go awry, our faith in His faithfulness may waver.
And yet God’s faithfulness is not tied to our earthly circumstances but rather to His promises in Scripture.

In Everyday Prayers for Faith: Finding Confidence in God No Matter What, author Erin H. Warren unpacks the precious promises of God that are worth far more than anything this world has to offer.