When you pray this week, begin by meditating on God’s holiness, His love, His tenderness, His faithfulness. Think of this as a holy inhale—you’re breathing in God’s Life and breathing out the temptation to make yourself (or your concerns) god over your life. (And please read Romans 8:5–8, specifically in The Message.)

You’ll notice the prayer begins by placing our attention on God, the One who inhabits the heavens, the One who upholds all things by the word of His power. Once we’re settled in His tender holiness and the surety of His will, we then move into our requests, our fears, our trials, our pains. They all have a place in our prayers, and I encourage you to make each line specific to you, the people in your world, the cares of your day, and trials in your way.

I want to challenge you to spend some time this week praying through Luke 15. As you read about the sheep, the coins, the sons, place yourself in these stories. You’ll see that Jesus tells of a costly joy—one that comes with forgiveness and repentance, seeking and finding, tears and confusion. A joy that, in this broken world, can feel easy to lose . . . yet something inside us knows it’s always worth finding again.

In this Christmas season, let’s be those who live with active patience, lifting our eyes and steadying our hearts so we can be faithful with our hands. Through grace we can see every mundane responsibility, such as the upkeep of a stable, as meaningful to the purposes of God.

Fresh or familiar pain is never enjoyable, but we mustn’t forget that pain is good as long as it’s necessary. It locates what is hurt so it can be healed. Don’t deny the pain but do defy it through your daily surrender.

What is God asking you to acknowledge, to bless, to break? Have you cursed what’s in your hands rather than blessing it and offering it to God?

Sin does its best work in the dark. It fractures, separates, distorts, dealing in deception and delusion. Sin is powerful but it doesn’t stand a chance against the light. When brought into the light, its holes are exposed, and those holes become portals, if you will, for us to receive God’s redemptive holiness, a wholeness only made possible by grace. Within the light, even sin must bow its knee, surrendering to God’s plans to redeem, restore, and transform.

Sin does its best work in the dark. It fractures, separates, distorts, dealing in deception and delusion. Sin is powerful but it doesn’t stand a chance against the light. When brought into the light, its holes are exposed, and those holes become portals, if you will, for us to receive God’s redemptive holiness, a wholeness only made possible by grace. Within the light, even sin must bow its knee, surrendering to God’s plans to redeem, restore, and transform.

Have you ever noticed that thanksgiving has a buoyancy to it? When you’re around people who practice costly gratitude, life feels lighter, even when it’s heavy.

There is hope, though. According to the proverb, while anxiety might weigh us down, just a single good word can reverse its effects, offering us courage in exchange for despair.