Hope for a Weary Heart

“Here I am again, Lord,” I prayed. “Asking for your help. As I’ve said so many times, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know the right steps forward or how to respond to this situation. I am at a complete loss. And Lord, I’m so tired of this struggle.”

Have you ever prayed something similar—a request that’s weighed heavily on your spirit for a long time? You’ve brought it before God again and again and honestly, you’re just tired. You feel the weariness to the very core of your soul. You keep bringing it before God and still . . . silence. When will God answer? When will you get relief?

Waiting and Weeping

This describes exactly how I felt years ago when my husband and I were in the throes of infertility and had been trying to adopt for four years. As we waited, a friend encouraged me to be specific in my requests to God. So, I began asking that a birth mother would choose us by my birthday that coming November (which was still several months away). 

I faithfully lifted up my request to the Lord, pleading for Him to fulfill this deep desire of my heart. Then my birthday came . . . and went. The next week was filled with all things baby—a new nephew born, a friend announcing her pregnancy, another friend giving birth too early and losing her son. And then to end the week, I attended a baby shower where my sorrow felt almost too heavy to hide. I was overwhelmed with emotion and utterly devastated. I was tired; I was weary. I felt like God was far away and not listening to my prayers.

But I wasn’t alone in my sorrow. God’s Word is full of those who have walked through this same kind of weary, aching wait. 

• Abraham waited for God to fulfill His promise (Gen. 15, 18). 
• Hannah pleaded for the gift of a child (1 Sam. 1:1–18). 
• Habakkuk cried out for God to make His work known among His people (Hab. 3:1–15).
• Anna prayed and fasted for over eighty years for Israel’s redemption (Luke 2:36–38).

Even David, a man after God’s own heart, was sometimes overwhelmed with similar weariness. Multiple times in the Psalms we see him cry out to God: 

I am weary from my groaning; 
with my tears I dampen my bed 
and drench my couch every night. (6:6)

I am weary from my crying; 
my throat is parched. 
My eyes fail, looking for my God. (69:3)

I am weary from grief; 
strengthen me through your word. (119:28)

My eyes grow weary
looking for what you have promised; 
I ask, “When will you comfort me?” (119:82)

David’s words remind us that weariness doesn’t mean our faith is weak—it’s often part of faithfully walking with God.

Daniel’s Example

Recently, I encountered this same theme in the book of Daniel.

Usually when I think of Daniel, I think of someone with unwavering trust in the Lord. Yet in Daniel 9:21, he describes his “extreme weariness.” Daniel had just finished fasting and praying for three weeks and was worn out physically. But I started thinking: What if Daniel’s tiredness went beyond just the physical?

By that time, Daniel was approximately eighty years old. He had lived in exile in Babylon since he was a teenager, served under five pagan rulers, interpreted multiple dreams and visions, watched his friends be thrown into the furnace, and was himself thrown into the lions’ den. He had proclaimed God’s message to rulers, with some of them listening and others not; some acknowledging God and others not. Yet Daniel’s circumstances had not changed—he was still in Babylon. His people were still scattered. The answer he longed for seemed far away. 

Daniel knew God was listening, but he was tired. He trusted in God’s promises and had witnessed His protection, and yet he was weary in body and spirit. However, his weariness did not cause him to give up; instead, it motivated him to keep praying.

In Daniel 10, we find him mourning the spiritual status of his people and the lack of progress in rebuilding the temple. He prayed—just as he had done his whole life—and again he waited. Then an angel appeared to him with an incredible message:

“Don’t be afraid, Daniel,” he said to me, “for from the first day that you purposed to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your prayers were heard. I have come because of your prayers.” (v. 12)

From the first day.

Daniel’s prayer had been heard immediately, even though the answer was delayed. God was working in ways that Daniel couldn’t see. And in that time, God strengthened him. His waiting was not wasted. And neither is ours. 

An Unexpected Answer

In my painful season of waiting for a child, I had to trust that God was moving even though I couldn’t see how. The following August—months after my birthday “deadline”—my husband and I received an unexpected call about a newborn baby whose teenage mother was unable to care for him. Two days later, our son came home from the hospital and into our family. 

Life became a whirlwind of bottles, diapers, sleepless nights, and incredible joy. It wasn’t until several months later, as my tiny son napped peacefully on my chest, that I remembered my prayer—and I realized the timing. 

My son was born in August, which meant he was conceived nine months earlier—in November! On my birthday, when it felt like God had ignored my request, my son was being knit together in his mother’s womb. God had already chosen us to be his parents. I just didn’t know it yet.

Remembering this again, now eighteen years later, has given me fresh encouragement in the midst of new situations and circumstances where I’m begging God for answers—some that I’ve been asking about for much longer than the time I prayed for a baby. I’ve been reminded that God’s ways are higher than mine (Isa. 55:9). He hears my heart cry (Psalm 34:17–18). He listens to my prayers (1 Pet. 3:12). And He answers—just not always in the way or how quickly I want. 

What have you been praying about for a long time? Are you weary in your prayers? Don’t give up. 

He hears you. 
He is not indifferent. 
He will answer in His way and His time—and He will strengthen you as you wait.