Five Prayers Every Christian Should Pray at Christmastime - Part One

Christmastime is a special time of year for Christians. Depending on where you live and what traditions you have, it is very easy to get caught up in all the holiday cheer and let the reason for the season become a little less important than it should be. The shopping, gift wrapping, decorating, family get-togethers, baking, meal prepping, and all the parties give us lots of moments making lasting memories with the people that matter most to us. For so many families, Christmas is “the most wonderful time of the year,” but it is not generally viewed as “the most spiritual time of the year.”

I know that as a young man, I thought I knew everything about the birth of Christ. I viewed the Christmas story as common knowledge and because it was familiar, I didn’t think there was a lot there to study. I certainly didn’t find a lot of inspiration to pray. But as I got older, I began asking more questions of the text, and the more questions I asked the more I was amazed by the manifestation of God in flesh. I cannot help but marvel at the many highly spiritual moments throughout the whole narrative.

Now it is one of my favorite subjects to study. I love to find ways to connect this story to our present context. This year, I have taken an interest in prayers we can pray based on the main characters of the story. In this blog and the next I would like to share five prayers that can help balance out everything else for you in the most busy and blessed time of the year. Who knows what might happen if a prayer meeting broke out on Christmas break?

Elizabeth & Zacharias

1.     Lord, help me be trustworthy.

The Scripture says that both Elizabeth and Zacharias were righteous, “walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless” (Luke 1:6). This was an established track record that could not be refuted…but they had no child. Even more significant was the fact that they were both old and considered beyond childbearing years. Nevertheless, they just kept serving God. Disappointed, looked down upon, and labeled “barren”—yes. Bitter, depressed, unfaithful—no! In truth, they were chosen of God for something so big it took a lifetime to prepare for it. The greatest prophetic words ever given to man began to come to pass with them!

At long last, Zacharias was in the temple serving the people faithfully. Gabriel appeared to him and said, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John” (Luke 1:13). What an answered prayer! Not just a son, but the greatest prophet to ever live! This only happened because they stayed faithful. Such great promises only come through people God can trust.

This is why I say, “Lord, help me be trustworthy.” God gave Zacharias and Elizabeth the high honor of parenting John the Baptist because they were trustworthy. If we want to see our greatest prayers answered, we must be trustworthy. Lord, help us all to be the kind of people You can do the impossible with.

Joseph & Mary

2.     Give me Strength to Obey When It Doesn’t Make Sense.

We have asked the question “Mary, did you know?” and it makes for a beautiful song, but the greater question is “Mary, how do you trust God when it doesn’t make sense?” Mary was a teenager perhaps as young as fourteen or fifteen years old and not yet married. Gabriel told her that she would conceive a child by the Holy Spirit. We celebrate this as a known fact now, but this had never happened before. Mary was amazed, fearful, and filled with questions; yet after Gabriel finished speaking, she simply said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

May we say with Mary, “I don’t understand all the plans You have for me, Lord, but I will say yes to You. I will do whatever You want me to do. Be it unto me according to Your word!”

I am sure Joseph was even more doubtful than Mary because at least Mary had Gabriel’s message from God along with the testimony of Elizabeth’s miracle pregnancy. Joseph only had Mary’s word. He had to rest completely upon her integrity, which defied logic. It made no sense. He loved her, but was now faced with the choice of how to proceed. Facts outweighed feelings. Mary was pregnant, and he felt he must break the engagement—but how?

God, in His grace, visited Joseph in the night season. An angel came to him in a dream:

“But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit’” (Matthew 1:20).

The angel was saying in essence, “Mary is telling the truth. I know it doesn’t make sense but marry her anyway. This is a God thing.” Amazing!

“Lord, help me to believe You when You speak to me. Father, give me strength to obey when it doesn’t make sense. I trust what You say and will do whatever You need me to do.”

I love how emphatically the Scripture speaks of Joseph’s immediate obedience. “Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife” (Matthew 1:24). May we all be so quick to obey God’s directives.

No wonder God chose Joseph and Mary! They really didn’t need much admonition to obey. Are you ready to obey God without hesitation? Do you know that God has chosen you?

© 2025 Jason Sciscoe