Praying like Abraham Lincoln

Devotional

My father-in-law was amazing. He built his own house, doing much of the work himself. He could repair anything on a car or a truck. He was a hunter and a fisherman. After taking early retirement from his business career, he led a volunteer fire station, designed an in-home ministry for senior adults in his community, and ran a full-time farm with my mother-in-law.

I, on the other hand, can do none of the things I just described (except catch fish on occasion). The good news is, I know people like my father-in-law. And if I am humble enough to admit what I don’t know and ask for help when I need it (which is often), everything works out.

If only I were always this wise with God.

Three months after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, a writer named Noah Brooks reported that the great president once said, “I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.”

And just as God was willing and able to hear the prayers of President Lincoln, he is ready to answer our prayers today. In fact, he assures us, “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known” (Jeremiah 33:3).

But we must “call” to him. Isaiah 55:6 says that we must “seek the Lord while he may be found” and “call upon him while he is near.” And we must decide that “as for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause” (Job 5:8).

When we do, he is ready to hear us and to help us. But there’s a catch: we must seek him for his glory, not ours. Our desire should be to know him for the sake of knowing him as our Father and king. When we seek him primarily for what he can do for us, we are not seeking God but only his blessings.

Meister Eckhart was right: “If we seek God for our own good and profit, we are not seeking God.” And, in My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers warned us: “Spiritual lust causes me to demand an answer from God, instead of seeking God himself who gives the answer.”

Seek God himself today as we enter a time of guided prayer.

today’s devotional is written by Jim Denison