A prayer

advent prayer

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An Advent prayer asks God to come: into the dark, into a crowded or grieving December, and into the waiting itself. These prayers ask rather than promise a perfect season. They draw on passages where light dawns on people in darkness, where the coming child is called God with us, and where waiting for God is like watching for morning.

Also in this set: 26 Advent Bible Verses

Prayers by situation

As Advent begins

Lord, the season is starting again, and I want it to be more than a countdown to a deadline. Before the lists take over, I am stopping to ask you for something better than a perfect December. Make room in me for you. Slow me down enough to notice what this waiting is for. Let the readings and the candles, if I manage them, point me to Christ and not to how well I am keeping the season. And when I forget all this by the second week, as I probably will, call me back without shame.

When lighting the Advent candles

God of light, we are lighting a small flame on a dark evening, and it is not much against the dark outside. Perhaps that is the point. Isaiah spoke of light dawning on people who lived in deep darkness, and we are asking to see that light too. As this candle burns, let whoever is at this table, or just me if I am on my own, remember what we are waiting for. Give us hope where things are broken, peace where things are tense, joy that does not depend on everything going well, and love that reaches past our own walls.

When December is too full to breathe

Lord, I am the one holding the gift list, the calendar, the food, the cards, and the memory of who should not sit next to whom. Advent is supposed to be about waiting, and I have not sat down in days. I do not want to resent a season that is meant to be about your coming. Show me what can be dropped without anyone being harmed by it. Give me ten quiet minutes somewhere in all this, and help me take them instead of filling them. Let me receive Christmas this year, not only produce it.

When Christmas is hard after a loss

God, there is an empty place this year, and everything about the season seems to point at it. The songs, the traditions, the photographs. I do not know how to be festive, and I do not want to pretend. If Advent is about waiting for you to come into the dark, then please come into this one. Let me grieve without apologising for it. Give me people who will let me be sad at the table. And on the days when I cannot pray more than this, stay near me anyway.

When you are waiting for something of your own

Lord, Advent is about waiting, and I am already waiting for something else: an answer, a result, a reconciliation, a change that has not come. Everyone around me is counting down to a date on the calendar, and my waiting has no date. The psalmist waited for you like a watchman waiting for morning. Teach me to wait like that, alert rather than numb. Keep me honest with you about how long it feels. And whatever this season brings or does not bring, let me find you in the waiting, not only at the end of it.

When you feel nothing this Advent

God, I know what this season means. I could explain it to a child. But I feel almost nothing, and I am a little ashamed of that. The carols wash past me. I am not going to fake a warmth I do not have. I am going to show up, which is what I have this year. Meet me in the plain going through the motions. Maybe that is a kind of waiting too. If the feeling comes back, I will be glad. If it does not, keep me near you anyway.

Before a tense family gathering

Lord, I am already bracing for it. I know where the old arguments live and who will say the thing that sets them off. Prince of Peace is one of the names Isaiah gave the child who was coming, and I need some of that peace in a very ordinary room. Guard my tongue when I am provoked. Help me hold a boundary without starting a war. Where someone is unkind, keep me from answering in kind. And if it goes badly anyway, give me somewhere quiet to come back to you afterwards.

When you are alone at Christmas

God, other people's plans fill my screen, and mine are thin this year. Whether I chose this quiet or it chose me, it feels loud. Matthew gives the coming child a name that means God with us, so I am asking you to be with me. Keep loneliness from telling me lies about what I am worth. Show me one person I could reach out to, and someone who might need me to. Let the quiet hold some real rest, and keep me from spending the whole season looking through a window at everyone else's.

While waiting for Christ to come again

Lord Jesus, the church waits at Advent not only to remember your birth but to ask for your return. I look at the news, and at the hurt in people I love, and I want you to come and set things right. Keep that longing alive in me instead of letting me settle for the world as it is. While I wait, make me useful: kind to the people in front of me, honest about what is wrong, hopeful without being naive. Come, Lord. Until then, keep me watching.

What is an Advent prayer asking for?

The word advent comes from the Latin for a coming, and in many Western churches the season covers the four Sundays before Christmas. An Advent prayer is, at heart, a request that God would come: into the world, into the dark, into the particular December you are actually having. That is why so many of the passages read in this season speak of darkness and light, of waiting and of watching for morning.

It is also why an Advent prayer does not have to sound festive. Isaiah 9 announces a light to people still walking in darkness. Psalm 130 waits from the depths. The prayers on this page are written for those places as much as for the candlelit table.

Do I need to light candles or follow a set order?

No. An Advent wreath can be a lovely way to mark the weeks, and many churches give each candle a theme, often hope, peace, joy and love, though the themes vary between traditions. But nothing about praying through Advent depends on getting the order right. The prayer for lighting the Advent candles is there for anyone who keeps a wreath, at a full table or alone. If you do not, the prayer for as Advent begins can be prayed on any evening, and prayed again when the season has run away from you.

What if I am too busy to keep Advent at all?

Many women find that December lands heavily on them: the gifts, the food, the cards, the remembering of who needs what. It can feel absurd to be told to wait quietly when there is no quiet anywhere. Advent was never meant to be one more task done well. The prayer for when December is too full to breathe asks for less rather than more, and for permission to receive the season rather than manage it. Ten minutes with Luke 1:78-79 counts.

What if Christmas is hard this year?

For some people the season sharpens a loss, a loneliness or a long wait that has no date on it. Advent may be the most honest part of the church year for that, because it is about waiting for God to come where things are not yet right. The prayers for after a loss and for being alone at Christmas do not ask you to cheer up. If grief this season feels crushing, or your thoughts turn toward not wanting to be here, please tell someone you trust today and contact a doctor, counsellor or crisis line. Reaching for that help is not a lack of faith.

Is Advent about Christmas or about Jesus coming back?

In many traditions it is both. The season remembers the waiting before Christ’s birth, the hope Matthew names when he calls the child God with us, and it also looks forward to his return, the hope voiced in Revelation 22:20. The prayer for while waiting for Christ to come again holds that second hope: a longing for things to be set right, and a request to stay useful and watchful until then.

The passages this rests on

Bible translation

  1. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

    Isaiah 9:2-7 ESV

    The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

    Isaiah 9:2-7 KJV

    The passage speaks of people walking in darkness who see a great light, and of a child born and a son given, called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, whose peace will have no end. Christians have long read it during Advent as pointing to Christ. For anyone praying in a dark season, it is worth noticing that the light is announced to people still in the dark, not to those who have already found their way out.

  2. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.

    Psalm 130:5-6 ESV

    I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.

    Psalm 130:5-6 KJV

    A psalm that cries to God from the depths speaks here of waiting for the Lord and hoping in his word, with the soul waiting more than watchmen wait for the morning. A watchman cannot hurry the dawn, but he expects it. That makes these lines a fitting companion for Advent, and for anyone carrying a private wait through a season of public countdowns. The waiting is real and it is long, and it is pointed at someone.

  3. because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

    Luke 1:78-79 ESV

    Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

    Luke 1:78-79 KJV

    These lines come from the song Zechariah speaks after the birth of his son John. They describe God's tender mercy bringing light from on high to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide their feet into the way of peace. The emphasis falls on mercy that comes to people where they sit. For a reader worn down or grieving in December, it names both the darkness and the direction out.

  4. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

    Matthew 1:23 ESV

    Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

    Matthew 1:23 KJV

    In Matthew's account, Joseph is told in a dream that the child will fulfil Isaiah's words about a virgin bearing a son called Emmanuel, which Matthew explains means God with us. It is the centre of what Advent waits for: not a distant God sending instructions, but God coming near. For anyone lonely, grieving or simply tired this season, the name itself is something to pray with, an asking that God would be with you too.

  5. He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

    Revelation 22:20 ESV

    He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

    Revelation 22:20 KJV

    Here Jesus says he is coming soon, and the reply is a short prayer asking the Lord Jesus to come. Many churches treat Advent as looking two ways: back to his birth and forward to his return. This verse gives words to the forward look. For someone weighed down by what is wrong in the world or in their own life, it is permission to want things set right, and to say so plainly in prayer.

Advent does not need to be kept well to be kept. A candle lit late, a prayer said in the car, a single reading on a crowded evening: each is a way of asking God to come. If this season is full, or grieving, or flat, bring it as it is, and ask again tomorrow.

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Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version, which is in the public domain. Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.