Prepare for your most Christ-soaked Advent yet | with Ruth Chou Simons
Ruth Chou Simons joins Stephanie today to invite families into an unconventional, life-changing Advent season. How can we prepare for a DIFFERENT kind of Advent - when Jesus is truly the center? How can we cultivate a posture of gratitude, an attitude of receiving goodness from the Lord, and a desire of deeper delight in His glory this Christmas season? How can we live an Advent season that is a true experience of what we do know about the goodness of the Lord? And, how can we carry Advent into all our other seasons of life - from January to November? Why and how is Christmas relevant in March, in July, in September--and every other season?
Don't miss Ruth's powerful prayer for you towards the end of their conversation! You can also watch the live video of the conversation on our YouTube channel, and make sure to subscribe:
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The Advent season, brimming with glad tidings and great joy, is often followed by disappointment, post-holiday letdown, dashed expectations, and exhaustion. Box up the ornaments and take down the garland; put away the artificial trees and cheery red bows and flannel sheets: Christmas, with all its hustle and bustle, tinsel and twinkle lights, carols and celebrations, is over. But shouldn’t post-Christmas feel more like an afterglow and less like an aftershock? Why don’t even the best of celebrations feel like enough? After receiving so many gifts—including the birth of Christ, why is unfulfillment still lurking?
Bestselling author, speaker and gifted artist behind GraceLaced Co., Ruth Chou Simons once asked those same questions at the end of the Advent season. She found herself wanting, in search of something that outlasted the month of December. In her new devotional, Emmanuel: An Invitation to Prepare Him Room at Christmas and Always, Ruth offers a fresh take on the Advent experience, showing readers that the birth of Jesus—the Christmas story—is only the beginning. And that the resurrection—often overlooked in December—is the most life-changing event. She guides readers on a beautifully-illustrated 25-day journey that changes the way they celebrate the season and live the rest of the year.
“If Jesus is the reason for the season, then the resurrection is really the most life‐changing event we can celebrate. The baby Jesus born to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem is truly a miracle only because he was the promised Messiah,” she writes. “Without the cross, the baby in the manger is but novel and fascinating, not life‐changing. And what we long for right now, in the midst of the hustle, the mess, and the mundane, is life-changing. We want the Christmas miracle to change our lives and not just our wallets … Perhaps when we struggle to experience that kind of heart change at Christmas it is because we’ve left the resurrection out of our celebration of the incarnation.”
In Emmanuel, Ruth combines her beautiful original artwork with personal insight and practical application. Each day in the book highlights a Bible passage, question to ponder, Christmas carol, and prayer. She helps readers understand they were created to know much more than the bustle, or even the magic, of Christmas; they were made to know Christ—the answer they have been longing for.
“When you see an infant lying in a manger this Christmas—a popular visual image representing the miraculous story in Scripture—don’t let your affections remain there,” writes Simons. “Jesus is more than a baby, more than a beautiful miracle in a harsh world. He is more than a familiar figure sung about in festive tunes. Jesus is God with us—Immanuel, just as the angel of the Lord told Joseph.”
“The true miracle of Christmas isn’t simply the virgin birth; it’s much greater than even such an impossibility. No, the miracle of Christmas is in this: that a holy God made a way for all who believe to come to Him...by first coming to us. Let that sink in. God’s promises, fulfilled by God Himself, are more than remarkable; they merit a response—not to get busy, but to fall down in reverence and awe for our great God.”
MEET RUTH CHOU SIMONS
Ruth Chou Simons is a Wall Street Journal bestselling and award-winning author of several books, including GraceLaced, Beholding and Becoming and When Strivings Cease, as well as the TruthFilled Bible study. She is an artist, entrepreneur, and speaker, using each of these platforms to spiritually sow the word of God into people’s hearts. Through her online shoppe at GraceLaced.com and her social media community, Simons shares her journey of God’s grace intersecting daily life with word and art. Ruth and her husband, Troy, are grateful parents to six boys—their greatest adventure.
https://www.facebook.com/gracelaced
https://www.instagram.com/ruthchousimons/
https://www.instagram.com/gracelaced/
GOD'S GLORY, OUR DELIGHT | THE GOSPEL SPICE SERIES
Delighting in the glory of God. Does this concept strike you as reserved for spiritual contemplatives? What if, instead, it proved the highly practical, deeply foundational perspective you need right now?
Why does God’s glory even matter in our day and age? How can we learn from Jesus to make His glory our true North and lifelong quest? What keeps us from fully stepping into this God-ordained purpose for our life? How do we kindle delight for God on a daily basis? And, once we have embraced God’s glory as our heart’s true delight, how can we then come alongside others?
Join us to cultivate a sincere delight for God’s glory, rooted in an honest, hard look at the depth of our need, and in the much deeper Reality of His grace. Trace the glory of God through Scripture and in your own life. Behold the exact radiance of God’s glory, revealed in Jesus. Learn to see yourself as Christ does—through the lens of the Father’s love at the cross. Jesus offers to overwhelm our deadly self-centeredness with His resurrection power. He carries us every step of the way, even as He calls us to true humility on the path to glory.
Who has time to cultivate the delight that comes from pondering the glory of God? And yet, nothing could be more urgent today. Marthas and Marys, Peters and Johns—we are all invited to dare to dream of a lifestyle of God-centered delight. Nothing could be more practical.
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You are invited to join us on the Gospel Spice Prayer Bible Study, titled "The heart behind prayer" starting September 20, 2025! Details and registration here: https://www.gospelspice.com/prayer
There are a few things in our Christian life that we know we should do more, or at least better – and prayer just might top the list. Prayer is a mystery. Why would a conversation with a human have any influence on God’s eternal, sovereign plan? It defies logic, and beckons love. How can God, the Almighty Lord of Hosts, be this close, this personal? It defies understanding, and beckons involvement.
But, lack of time, inspiration, and discipline, combined with the ruthless tyranny of our busy lives, push prayer to the periphery, to the “one day I’ll get to it” pile. And yet, we can excel at what we endeavor to undertake. So, why isn’t prayer more of a spiritual priority? Could we develop a mindset around prayer that made it attractive, inspiring, even maybe delightful? What if we attuned our spiritual ears to listen to God, and our spiritual eyes to see His provision?
As an unassuming student, I’m going to humbly offer to share the little I have learned from others about the joy of prayer. I will give us theology, practical tips, and useful resources, sharing what works for me as we, together, learn to pray.
If you find prayer intimidating, or if your lack of prayer makes you feel guilty or “less than,” then this is the place for you! If you have been a student of prayer for many years, this is the place for you too! If you have breath in your lungs, then prayer can become one of the deepest joys of your day. Don’t miss out!
A PERSPECTIVE ABOUT PRAYER
To pray is to believe that God not only hears, but that He responds. It is to stand in the gap for a broken world, wielding the authority of Christ, empowered by the Spirit, and trusting in the goodness of the Father. The question is not whether prayer works, but whether we are willing to pray the kinds of prayers that invite God’s Kingdom into the darkest places of the earth—and of our own hearts.
We may never fully understand the mechanics of prayer, or how it intersects with God's sovereignty, but we are not called to understand everything. We are called to be faithful. And faithfulness means showing up—in prayer, in persistence, in expectation.
So today, let us pray not only for the comfort of our hearts, but for the transformation of the world. Let us take our place as image-bearers, co-laborers, and co-heirs. Let us believe that God is still listening—and still acting. Because He is.
There’s only one way to find out what might happen when we truly pray like this.
Let’s begin.
THE MINDSET BEHIND THIS COURSE
Before we begin, let me tell you the obvious: I don’t really know how to pray. I’m a humble student and absolute beginner at the holy endeavor that is prayer. So, this course isn’t really about what I’ve learned, or any wisdom I might have gathered. But, I’ve sat at the feet of many prayer warriors over the decades, through books and teachings.
So, I’ll share what I learned from them. Humility is going to be our primary heart posture! With each lesson, I will offer a few thoughts, practices, and ideas – with much humility, and not taking myself too seriously. I will also share her favorite books and resources about prayer. FInally, I will introduce you to some of the most influential prayer warriors of our history as the Body of Christ.
Most importantly, I will invite YOU to pray! Learning to pray comes from praying. Our humble ambition is to inspire you to pray, and to give you a few tips on how to do that. Then, it’s up to you! Prayer is a lifelong endeavor. Let’s make it delightful together!
So, let’s get started.
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