Draw Near – 365 Guides to Greater Intimacy with GodSample

WAITING

Once, during the trying days of the Civil War, President Lincoln was found pacing the floors of the White House. He was lonely and troubled as reports from Gettysburg flowed in. Finally, he closed the door and prayed. Later, he told a friend, "I told God that I had done all I could. The burden fell off my shoulders, my intense anxiety was relieved, and in its place came a great trustfulness."

Prayer can relieve man's deepest anxiety. Hannah longed for a child: And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the LORD and wept in anguish. But, as she stayed on her knees, God spoke to her through Eli, and Hannah's anxieties were calmed (1 Samuel 1:9-18). She went her way to eat, and her face was no longer sad.

Often, we pray as if we do not believe God hears us. Yet, even in those desperate moments, God breaks through our sadness to give peace and tranquility. All we who know Christ have begun a prayer in one mood and ended in another. May God help us today to be more careful to take all things to Him in prayer, rather than trying to bear the heavy burdens ourselves. In our lives, as in Hannah's, God will answer.