Christmas Prayer

Dear one,

There are no gifts I can give you which will fill your heart with all the special things you deserve. So this Christmas I offer this prayer, asking the One who knows us all to give you His very best.

In His great heart of love He knows all we need, and in His love He longs to give us many treasures of the spirit.

Firstly, I pray for your happiness. Not the kind that comes from events or longed-for acquisitions, but deep abiding happiness that will be there even if you have nothing else special going on. The Bible calls it joy, so that is my prayer for you—joy that lasts even when things aren't going just right.

Next I pray for peace in your heart. Now that can sound boring, but I don't mean a lack of excitement, an empty feeling, or surcease from activity or challenge, but rather a sweet knowledge that God is in control, and that He won't let anything happen to you that you and He can't work out together—a quiet certainty that gives you rest inside, even when you are working hard or the pressure's on. Deep peace.

My prayer wouldn't be complete without praying for you to have faith. Some people think faith means blindness to reality—an overly optimistic outlook that denies the facts. But real faith, the kind I wish for you, is based on the most wonderful realities of all—God and His love and His promises to you. That kind of faith that knows that God wants only the very best for you and has the power to bring it to pass. That kind of faith comes from reading His Word and finding in your heart that you know it is true. That's the kind of faith that moves mountains.

I pray for you to have wisdom and understanding, so that you can look at life around you and then to Heaven above, and find there the answers and explanations and guidance you need—God-given wisdom that gives you patience and faith for others and points the way in difficult moments.

And last but not least, I pray for you to experience love—great love, overflowing love, patient love, wise love, sweet love, fun love, exciting love, purposeful love, abiding love, strong love, encouraging love, God's love in all its wondrous forms.

For all these reasons, God came down at Christmas in the form of a little baby to give us all these things—happiness, peace, faith, wisdom, and most of all, love.

So my prayer is that this Christmas, you will experience these in a greater way than ever before. That you will let that little baby and His message into your life. That you will take the Christ child into your heart, believe His promises, and experience all the wonders He has for you.

I pray all this for you, because I know that Jesus wants to give you these things anyway, because He loves you—and I do too.