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Our blue-green planet circled the sun thirty-three times between Jesus’ Bethlehem birth and His Calvary crucifixion. He experienced each of those springs, summers, autumns, and winters—having created them all.

And in the last three years that Jesus walked the earth—those last twelve seasons—His followers walked with Him through miraculous days, watching Him perform astonishing, supernatural wonders.

Yet His closest friends didn’t ask Him to teach them to raise the dead or walk on water (or turn that water into wine). Instead, they said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray.’ (Luke 11:1) On display in Jesus’ life was the power of constant communion with His Father, through every season, through prayer. His friends wanted in on that.

I want in on that too. I’m guessing, so do you.

Jesus is still in the business of teaching us to pray, and my hope is He’ll use these prayers to weave words around the longings of your heart. When you’re bereft—too stricken to string together a plea—or when you’re speechless with joy, may the sublime and otherworldly language of prayer begin to flow.

The prayers in this book are arranged—loosely and metaphorically—around the four seasons, which are more (and less) dramatic in different parts of the world—and so too in our lives. Some experience mild winters. Others weather blizzards that snow them in or ice them out. Summers, too, range from sweltering to perfectly comfortable. But regardless of the weather conditions in your life, seasons pass. With each trip we take around the sun, leaves turn and blooms bud.

So, in the spring times of life, the prayers we offer reflect burgeoning possibility, newness, and hope.

In summer, we’re in full flight: stepping into God’s call to love and serve in all the ways He’s equipped us to do so.

In splendid falls that set the wistful world on fire, there’s letting go—even as our roots grow in the dark, fed and watered by the richness of necessary decay.

And in the dead of winter—those dark nights of the soul—we cry out to the God of light and life who wraps us in the warm assurance that spring will come again.

Some of these prayers you’ll want to pray for yourself. Some will guide you to pray for loved ones, whole communities, nations, the world. Pray your boldest prayers for those who come to mind. Pray for people the way you long for people to pray for you. Fill in the blanks—names, places, and circumstances—as you make these prayers your own. Scrawl in the margins and underline the bits that grip your heart. Wrestle with God over truth that sits uncomfortably in your soul.

I hope you’ll be moved to pray for people you don’t often come across, in sectors of society you don’t often think about.

Also, please pay these prayers forward to those who need them and let’s reach out to one another on the socials or in real life where possible to celebrate how God is answering. The psalmist reminds us, after all, ‘As soon as I pray, You answer me; You encourage me by giving me strength.’ (Psalm 138:3)

There’s a prayer for every day of the year, accompanied by a scripture and a call to action, but there’s no expectation to pray them in order. Maybe you’ll devour these prayers in chunks, ten at a time. Maybe you’ll find one that makes you go, ‘Yes! This! Exactly!’ It’s ok to camp on that page for weeks until the petition sinks into the marrow of your bones and brings you peace. The alphabetical index is designed to help you find the prayers you need, when you need them.

We expect the physical seasons to regulate our wardrobes and vacations, but the seasons of the soul are less predictable than the earth’s reliable tilt and spin. Who knows—other than God—what triumph or disillusionment or grief or adventure might blow our way next week? So, you may wish to start reading the section of this book correlating with the season physically manifesting in the hemisphere you find yourself. Equally, you could dive into the wintery prayers—then jump straight into summer—or switch back and forth between spring and every other season—because the ebb and flow of our circumstances doesn’t always coincide with the elements.

Anne Lamott once said that everyone is messed up, broken, clingy, and scared—even those (perhaps especially those) who seem to have it all together. Prayer gives us unlimited license to bring our messed up, broken, clingy, and scared selves to the throne of our Father and King, before whom there’s no point pretending to be anything we’re not.

Prayer, then, is our most accurate barometer. We are what we are on our knees. No more. No less.

This Christmas, and in every season to come, may we be known as people who surrender our will to God and declare our dependence on Him, no matter the weather, forever, for the Kingdom, power, and glory are His.

If you’re looking for stocking fillers for precious women in your life, find Prayers for a Woman’s Heart where books are sold, in stores and online.

For FREE DELIVERY in the UK, head over here to get it on Eden Books!

In South Africa, you’ll find it here, here or here.

In the USA, it’s available here.

. . .

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