Books for Christian Girls: "Worry Less, Pray More" by JoAnne Simmons

About this book:

  “Worry-Free Devotional Guide Offers Calm for an Anxiety-Filled Soul
    This purposeful devotional guide features 180 readings and prayers designed to help alleviate your worries as you learn to live in the peace of the Almighty God, who offers calm for your anxiety-filled soul. Inspired by this promise from God's Word: "Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life” (Philippians 4:6-7 MSG), Worry Less, Pray More reinforces the truth that with God, you can live anxiety-free every single day—whether you worry about your friendships, school, fitting in, the future, or something more.”

Series: No. A stand-alone devotional.

Spiritual Content- Each devotional has a theme that is backed with a Scripture or two (or more), a bit of discussion, & a prayer; 'H's are capital when referring to God (but not in the Scriptures when the Bible version used does not have the ‘H’s capital); Bible versions NIV, MSG, NLT, and ICB are used in the devotionals; A prayer of salvation is written; All about many talks about & many mentions of God, Jesus, seeking a relationship with Him, & learning to worry less and pray more; Many mentions of those & events in the Bible; Mentions of the Holy Spirit; Mentions of Bibles & Bible reading; Mentions of prayers, praying, thanking God, & blessings over food; Mentions of Heaven; Mentions of church going & finding a Bible-teaching church; Mentions of being Blessed & blessings; Mentions of sin; A few mentions of miracles; A couple mentions of worship songs & ones that “praise God and share biblical truth”; A couple mentions of Christians; A mention of a Sunday school lesson;
             *Note: A devotion quotes Matthew 18:10 and mentions that some people wonder if guardian angels are real, this devotion goes on to say that based on this Scripture, there are & quotes a few more Scriptures; A devotion compares God to the fake gods of the world (saying that “people often make fake gods because they don’t really want to serve or worship anyone but themselves”; Another devotion mentions not wanting to follow any type of false god that “will lead us into the ways of the devil”); Mentions of Satan/the devil (who “fights for our attention and wants to keep it on the world and meaningless things instead of on God and the truth He wants us to hear.”; There is also a devotional that talks about “why does evil happen” and the answer given being that “the whole world is under the power of the devil. But for all of us who believe in Jesus as Savior, we belong to God and the devil can never defeat us”); A mention of not worshiping celebrities.

Negative Content- A devotion about the sudden loss of a loved one; A few mentions of lies & lying; A couple mentions of bullies at school; A mention of crimes; A mention of cheating; A mention of injuries; A mention of jealousy; A mention of peer pressure; A mention of gossip;
             *Note: Mentions of social media (none are named) & how that and living in a world of unbelievers can sometimes tempt us to sin; A few mentions of makeup and that God doesn’t focus on outward appearance (makeup is neither implied as a negative or positive thing); A few mentions of devotions mention about how popular things in the world goes against the truth and guidance of God’s Word (no examples given); A devotion focuses on identity, saying that a lot of people try to “figure out their identity”, the author writes that “if we look to God, that’s where we find it! His Word is clear in Genesis 1 that God made people either male or female in His likeness”; A devotion focus on equality and that we hear that word lot, so it can be stressful to figure out who to listen to about it, so “we need wisdom about who alone gives real equality—it’s Jesus! There will always be bad people trying to say some groups of people are better than others. But don’t ever listen to or join them. In God’s eyes, because of Jesus, every single person is the same in value”; A mention of Guinness World Records; A mention of the slang ‘GOAT’ (“the athletes considered the greatest of all time”).

Sexual Content- N/A.
                                    Devotional
                                           192 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

This is an encouraging little devotional. It gives ideas for other ways to add to your prayers and was good overall. It was pretty solid and had little-to-none of pop-culture or fluff within it, which I appreciate! There was a lot of good notes that I can’t say I’ve seen in other teen-age devotionals—and we all know I’ve reviewed a bunch of those—like praying for your parents, your extended family members, your country, and such. I will say that I’m not personally a fan of the versions used, but the point of a devotional is to get you in your Bible more, though, so it’s not a deal-breaker for me.

Some of the devotionals felt a bit young (for younger teens), but overall, I think it would work for all ages of teen girls.

{A couple notes:

There’s more than ten mentions of school-like settings (& a few devotionals about praying at school), but they aren’t the only examples used, so I think this devotional could work for a homeschooled teen as well, though, some parts might not fit well.

There’s a couple devotionals about praying for your country/state, it’s president/leaders, and politics and a couple that mention about the American flag or being American. The message is still true for those in other countries/states and the prayers would still stay the same.}

See y’all on Friday with a new review!