No gift could fill your heart with all the special things you deserve, so this Christmas I offer a prayer instead, asking the One who knows your every need to give you His very best.
First I pray for your happiness. Not the fleeting kind that comes from happenings or new acquisitions, but deep abiding happiness that will be there even when nothing special is going on.
Next I pray for peace in your heart. 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.
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 knows that God wants only the very best for you and will bring it to pass. That kind of faith comes from reading His Word. 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 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.
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 take Christ into your heart, believe His promises, and experience all the wonders He has for you.
I pray this for you because I know that Jesus wants to give you all these things, because He loves you. And I do too.



