Embracing Life
25 Scriptures to Pray to Prepare Your Heart for Christmas
Christmas is always a busy time of year. There’s decorations to put up, gifts to buy, parties to attend, memories to make. There’s pressure to have Pinterest perfect decor and the best Christmas experiences for your whole family, that it’s easy to miss the peace and joy that the birth of our Savior should bring. I absolutely love reading Advent devotionals to get my heart in the right place before Christmas. But this year, I’ve decided that in addition to reading Advent devotionals to prepare my heart for Christmas, I want to be intentional about reading and reflecting on God’s Word to prepare my heart for Christmas. There is a button near the bottom of this page where you can share or print this article. I encourage you to print it out, keep it in your Bible, and read and reflect on one of these Scriptures and prayer prompts a day throughout Advent. Pray that this holiday season, you will be filled with the joy and the wonder of God sending His son as a gift so that we would be saved.
Featured | PrayerBack to School Blessings
A new school year brings new beginnings, new opportunities, and often a few unknowns. We naturally want to protect the children we love, help them succeed, and prepare them for whatever the year may bring. But we can't know every challenge they will face or walk every step of the journey with them. We can, however, entrust them to the God who knows every day ahead of them and remind our children of His presence, His promises, and His love. To speak a blessing over someone is more than simply wishing them well. It is an intentional way of speaking God’s truth and promises over their lives. Blessings can certainly be prayed between you and God, but they can also be spoken aloud, allowing the one you are blessing to hear God’s Word and His truth spoken directly to their heart, mind, and spirit.
Featured | PrayerScripture Prayers of Thanks to Our Heavenly Father
What comes to mind when you think of God as your Father? Maybe you think of His love. His provision. His protection. His patience. His nearness. Or perhaps you simply marvel at the fact that the God who created the universe invites you to know Him as your Heavenly Father. Scripture gives us beautiful reminders of His character and His care for us. And when we turn those truths into prayers of praise and thanksgiving, we have the opportunity to slow down and savor who our Father is and what He has done for us. Here are several Scripture-based prayers you can use when you want to spend some time thanking your Heavenly Father. Matthew 6:21 says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” We often reflect on this verse in terms of our own hearts and what we treasure most. But Scripture also gives us a beautiful picture of God's desire to dwell with His people. From the beginning, God has pursued relationship with us.
Featured | Prayer25 Scriptures to Pray For Your Family
Prayer in and of itself is powerful. When you combine it with Scripture, well, let's just say you should be prepared to see some mighty things happen. God gave us His word and He wants us to pray. When you combine the two spiritual disciplines of reading the Word and prayer by praying Scripture, it will help you apply God's word to your life while growing deeper in your prayer life.,Praying Scripture honors God by using His own words to praise Him and pray to Him.,We tend to pray for things WE want, but praying Scripture will help align your desires with what HE wants. And when our desires are aligned, that's when we're most likely to see God move powerfully in our prayers. If you'd like to learn more about praying Scripture with lists of verses to pray on a variety of topics (such as praying for your family, marriage, children, purpose, health, church, and so much more) check out my book On the Same Page with God: Embracing the Power of Praying Scripture.
Featured | PrayerWhen You Find Yourself Asking God "Why?"
When something unexpected happens in our life, or in our world, it's easy for us to ask God why it happened. We want to live the blessed "abundant life" (John 10:10b) that Jesus said He was bringing, and we forget that He also told us that "in this world, you will have trouble," John 16:33. We forget that all our favorite Bible characters had their share of struggles and grief and hard circumstances. Sometimes they experienced struggles for decades before they saw God's plan come to pass in their life. When both of my sons began to receive diagnosis after diagnosis, I continually asked God "Why? Why my child? Why both of my children? Why me? Why don't you heal them? Why is this special needs parenting thing so hard? Why do you feel so far away?" After months and months of pleading these questions and God not giving me an answer, I experienced a crisis of faith that scared me.
Featured | Faith15 Scriptures to Pray For America
My heart lately has been burdened by events and attitudes I see unfolding around me in the United States. We aren't united. We are divided by political parties and beliefs. It breaks my heart. And I know it does God's too. Jesus prayed before His death for all of us: "I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me." John 17:21 Not only did Jesus pray and die for us to be united, but His prayer was that by us being united, other people, those who are not believers, would be drawn toward God. Our country is in the middle of a great battle, and we know that the best way for us to battle is on our knees. And the best source to turn to is not the news or social media, but the very Word of God. Despite our different denominations and political parties and opinions, we are all united by the power of prayer and the blood of Jesus.
Featured | PrayerWhen God Calls You To Write A Book
I have dreamed of writing a book for a long time. I thought perhaps I would write a young adult book: as a former middle school English teacher, I devour plenty of those, wanting to be able to share my love of reading with my students who are always looking for a good book. I wrote two young adult novels and even sought out publication for them. I even had a few agents interested in one of my books but they wanted me to make some changes that I didn't have time for, because I was suddenly thrown into a world of special needs parenting. Disclosure: Some of the links in this article are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support! Note: This article was originally published in September of 2018 and updated in June of 2025.
Featured | WritingEncouraging Scriptures For When Your Child Has A Speech Delay
My younger son has a speech delay, my older son has apraxia —a neurological speech disorder that requires frequent and intensive speech therapy to learn to speak. He didn't say his first words until he was almost four. Devastated by the lack of conversations I got to have with my children, one day I turned to Scripture. Surely there was a passage or verse about speech that would encourage me, right? Yes there was. I was astounded by the hundreds of Scriptures that referenced words and speech and speaking and declaring. Some of them I found especially encouraging as I worked with my sons and their speech difficulties, and I will share my favorites with you below. But what also encouraged me is how many times in Scripture we see a story of a Bible character with a disability of some kind, and we see that they were not overlooked, but lavished with love and compassion and care by God and by Jesus. Each story was a beautiful reminder that God loves and pursues us and our children too.
Featured | Special needsBibles For Children with Special Needs to Help Them Access God's Word
My older son (age 12) has hearing loss, a speech disorder, and a few learning disabilities, and my younger son (age 9) is on the autism spectrum, but I don't want their diagnoses to stop them from learning about and loving God's Word. There are so many Bibles to choose from, I decided I would share with you the Bibles that I have read with my own children or that I've heard great things about from other special needs parents. Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support! Updated: September 2024 This was one of the first Bibles I read with my kids and they loved it. It is brightly colored with cartoon-like illustrations in simple language that help the stories come alive for our children. This beautifully illustrated Bible is great for those who are unable to read on their own or just learning to read.
Featured | Special needs