In His Hands

As a mother of multiple children with serious health conditions, there are times when I don’t know how or what to pray. Eric and Jessika’s heartfelt, Scripture-based prayers put words to thoughts and feelings that can be hard to express, while also helping parents like me to look to God and hope in him. | In His Hands is a precious resource for families who are clinging to God during the heartache and confusion of medical crises. These prayers are steeped in Scripture; they are full of humble wisdom, honest lament, and godly hope. When circumstances are so overwhelming that you don’t even know what to say, these prayers will draw you close to God and help you find your voice. | What a gift Schumacher and Sanders offer the hurting with In His Hands, a beautiful, poignant collection of prayers for those touched by child illness and loss. Nuanced with the wisdom of personal experience and saturated with Scripture, this book will offer a voice to the suffering when words fail, and point them to the one, true Word who has borne their sorrows and is acquainted with grief. | This beautiful book is deeply moving—the prayers are affective, touching the heart in a way that child, sibling, parents, and family will identify with. It is deeply pastoral—the prayers are comprehensive, covering all possible scenarios that child, sibling, parents, and family may experience. And it is deeply needed—the prayers are instructive, giving child, sibling, parents, and family words to pray when they know not how to pray. What a beautiful blessing this book will be to many! | This is a book for the moments when you don’t have the words to pray. Eric and Jessika remind parents of the hope of the gospel with every prayer. | When our child faces a medical crisis, fears can paralyze, emotions can disorient, and we often lack the words to express the whirlpool of thoughts and feelings within. I was deeply impacted by these beautifully real prayers, which in many ways speak into countless circumstances. When you lack the words to pray, open the pages of this book and you will find the words your heart longs to cry out to your Heavenly Father. | This book is a gift. It’s not just a gift because you can (and should) gift it to suffering parents. It’s a gift because it is written by people who have learned, through deep pain, how to suffer in faith. Rather than offering superficial platitudes, this little book will draw your heart deep into the heart of the Suffering Servant who knows and loves. I highly recommend it. | As someone who has walked through multiple miscarriages, I can personally attest to the experience of deeply longing to cry out to the Lord yet having no words to do so. Eric and Jessika have given me those words. In His Hands gives simple yet profound examples of how and what to pray amidst loss, fear, or grief during a child’s medical crisis, as well as the myriad of circumstances that come with it. This book is a gift to those who are walking through this season as well as those who are walking with them. Highly recommended! | By masterfully integrating the words of Scripture to help parents and children give voice to their laments, hopes, pleas and praises, this book helps us all to see how God meets us wherever we are in the pediatric medical crisis journey. Schumacher and Sanders offer these prayers as parents intimately familiar with crisis, and intimately familiar with the Lord who carries us through both healing and loss. This book is a much-needed resource for families walking through the indescrib- able tension between grief and hope, and for those looking to support loved ones in medical crisis with truthful, gritty, platitude-free faith. | Using Scripture and compassion, In His Hands provides words and prayers for not only families facing difficult diagnoses but also those praying for them and their medical team. Today, I learned of a friend’s cancer diagnosis and found comfort in this new resource. I plan to use it with our center staff and give it as a gift to families we support. | Jessika Sanders is a wife and mother of three, and the Executive Director of Praying Through Ministries. She writes at jessikasanderswriter.com and has contributed to publications including So God Made a Mother (edited by Leslie Means) and Hope When Your Heart is Heavy (from Proverbs 31 Ministries). Jessika is passionate about equipping others with biblical truth, especially in suffering.