In His Hands: Prayers for Your Child or Baby in a Medical Crisis

by Jessika Sanders, Eric M. Schumacher, Emily Jensen (Foreword by), Brad Jensen (Foreword by)

Overview

When your child or unborn baby is facing serious medical problems, it can be hard to know what to pray. The shock, uncertainty and fear can mean that even though you want to cry out to God in prayer, your words just dry up. 

That’s where this book can help, with prayers that use Scripture to help you communicate with the Lord. Whether you need to cry out honestly to the Lord in grief, to pray boldly for healing and help or simply to process what is happening, you'll find words to help you talk with the God who loves you and weeps with you—the God who can do all things.

Authors Eric Schumacher and Jessika Sanders both know what it’s like to face a family medical crisis, and they are passionate about helping others in the most difficult situations. Eric is the author of Ours: Biblical Comfort for Men Grieving Miscarriage. Jessika is the Executive Director of Praying Through Ministries, which provides support for parents whose children have been hospitalized and families who have experienced child loss.

This easy-to-navigate book includes prayers for a clear diagnosis; prayers for healing; prayers for comfort and relief from pain; prayers for peace, courage, perseverance and wisdom to cope well; prayers for unity; for the extended family; for the medical team; for practical needs; for times of spiritual darkness and doubt; and much more.

This book is designed to help both parents and the wider family turn to God for help when a child is facing a medical crisis. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781784989781
Publisher:	The Good Book Company
Publication date:	07/01/2024
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 7.48(h) x 0.83(d)

About the Author

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.

Eric M. Schumacher is a husband, father, and songwriter who works in full-time ministry serving pastors. He is the author of Ours: Biblical Comfort for Men Grieving Miscarriage, and co-authored Worthy and Jesus & Gender with Elyse Fitzpatrick. Eric received his MDiv from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He lives in Iowa with his wife and five children. Find him online at emschumacher.com.

Emily Jensen is the cofounder of Risen Motherhood and currently serves as the content director and cohost of the weekly podcast. Emily, her husband, and her five children reside in central Iowa. You can find her on Instagram @emily_jensen.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Section 1: For Uncertain and Fearful Times

Section 2: For Healing

Section 3: For Our Child

Section 4: For Our Family

Section 5: For the Medical Team

Section 6: For the Things We Need

Section 7: For Times of Spiritual Darkness and Doubt

Section 8: For Lifting Our Eyes in Praise

Section 9: For Occasions

Section 10: For Giving Thanks After Healing

Section 11: For Loss

Section 12: For Life After Loss

Editorial Reviews

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.

Katie Faris

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.

Elyse M. Fitzpatrick (Author

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.

Michelle Nietert (Clinical Director

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.

Kristin Schmucker (Founder

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.

Kathryn Butler (Author

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.

Elyse Fitzpatrick (Author and Speaker)

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.

Scott James (Pediatric Doctor

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!

Kristin L. Kellen (Assistant Professor of Biblical Counseling

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!

Jonathan Gibson

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.

Sarah Walton (Author

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.

Hui-wen (Alina) Sato (Pediatric ICU Nurse)

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.

Katie Faris (Author