Prayer Can Lighten Our Cross - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2024

Put my tears into Your bottle; are they not in Your book? When I cry out to You then my enemies will turn back.
Psalm 56:8-9

Prayer Can Lighten Our Cross
There is a friend ever waiting to help us, if we will only tell Him our sorrow; a friend who pitied the poor, and sick, and sorrowful, when He was on earth; a friend who knows the heart of a man, for He lived thirty-three years as a man among us; a friend who can weep with the weepers, for He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; a friend who is able to help us, for there never was earthly pain He could not cure. That friend is Jesus Christ.

Jesus can make those happy who trust Him and call on Him, whatever their outward condition might be. He can give them peace of heart in a prison, contentment in the midst of poverty, comfort in the midst of bereavements, and joy on the brink of the grave. There is a mighty fullness in Him for all His believing members, a fullness that is ready to be poured out on everyone who will ask in prayer. Oh, that men would understand that happiness does not depend on outward circumstances, but on the state of the heart!

Prayer can lighten crosses for us no matter how heavy they are. It can bring down to our side One who will help us to bear them. Prayer can open a door for us when our way seems hedged in. It can bring down One who will say, . Prayer can let in a ray of hope when all our earthly prospects seem darkened. It can bring down One who will say, "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Heb. 13:5). Prayer can obtain relief for us when those we love most are taken away, and the world feels empty. Oh, that we were not so much like Hagar, blind to the well of living waters close beside her (Gen. 21:19)!

J. C. Ryle