The inspiration for this collection comes from my personal study Bible—a torn, highlighted, underlined, 20-year-old book that’s been through breakups, friendships, deaths, births, recessions, depressions, and celebrations. And in those seasons, there were themes that stood out to me: 

• Prayer isn’t a vending machine transaction; in fact, I’ve received the opposite or something entirely different than what I’ve requested!
• Prayer helps me become more like Christ: at some point, I realized I truly meant “Your will be done,” and I had peace about it.
• Prayer is more for me and my spiritual health than it is for God’s - God is perfect and doesn’t need me… but I need God. And to live, joyfully and peacefully, I need to be reaching out to Him.
• A full and meaningful prayer life has elements of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and requesting. Honestly, though, my prayers are often skewed more towards requesting, but this discipline is more enjoyable when all those elements are integrated. 

The verses in And He Answered are special to me, and I hope they can become meaningful to you, too. I encourage you to read those verses, read the chapter they’re nested in, and read who prayed them.

God is so good to remind us that, over 2,000 years ago, there were men and women who were going through a difficult or disheartening situation and yet were able to trust Him through those long days. 

The details might not be the same - it might be a deep wound from a spouse, a big presentation that could positively affect your career, stress over buying food, feeling like you’re the only one doing “the right thing” - but we read, page after page in the Bible, that God is present and working through all those details for our good, His glory, and the kingdom.