I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 5th of January, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in 1 Samuel 1:10:

“And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish.”

I am talking about desperate prayer here. Hannah was desperate to have a baby.

Then we go straight to the New Testament, Luke 22:42, Jesus speaking:

“Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”

The Lord has laid on our hearts today - He wants genuine prayer from you and me. He wants us to talk to Him. He wants real connection with us. Desperate prayer, He can hear it. C H Spurgeon, the great English preacher said, “Homemade prayers from the heart are the ones that God wants to hear,” He says, “ones that the Holy Spirit helps you and me to pray. Broken words, sentences that are disconnected, God doesn’t mind. Even sometimes, the words are so heavy, you can hardly speak them out. That’s okay too, you can pray in the depths of your heart, but Jesus wants to hear them. 

You might say to me, “I am not very good at prayer. I can’t pray aloud.” I remember like yesterday, in the little church where I gave my life to Christ, the minister said, “We are going to have a meeting on Wednesday, after that Sunday morning (which I will never forget), and we are going to come together in the evening, and we are going to form little groups and we are going to pray together.” So we went along that Wednesday evening, very nervous, Jill and I and the children, and we were put in a group of about ten, and the leader of the group said, “Now, we are going to pray openly." I had never really done that before. I was extremely nervous, and that man said, “Just pray what’s on your heart,” so off we went. Halfway around the circle, there was an old man. I think his name was John. I could see by his face, John had been a serious drinker of alcohol. He had those war maps all over his face and he had been in all kinds of skirmishes but he had given his life to Christ, like Jill and I had, and all he prayed was, “Oh God, please help me!” A prayer of desperation. I will never forget that prayer and I believe God did help him.

Today, speak to the Lord. It doesn’t matter what it sounds like. He knows your heart.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.