The Civil War greatly divided our country causing brother ot fight against brother, and state against state. Being a man of God Lincoln knew that he had a great responsibility as leader of this great nation, and the problems made him dig even deeper into a close relationship with God. Lincoln wrote, " I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me seamed insufficient for that day."

President Lincoln also understood the Power that God gives His people when they go to God in Unity. On April 30, 1863 he proclaimed the day as a National Day of fasting, humiliation and prayer. He also asked that "all the people abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits and unite... in keeping the day holy to the Lord."

Part of Lincoln's Presidential Proclamation says:
We know that by His divine law, nations ... are subjected to punishments ... in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presemptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own .... We have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness...

All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the divine teachings, that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace."

On the battleground things continued to look bleak for the Union armies. When the North our numbered the Southern soldiers two to one they continued to lose battle after battle. General Lee marched towards the capital, and on June 28, Lincoln made General George Meade the new commander of the Army of Potomac. Instead of worrying President Lincoln humbled himself before God and prayed.

During the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863); General Lee's army was stopped which was a major victory for the North. On July 4th Vicksburg surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant.

Following the battle General Daniel Sickles asked President Lincoln "Were you anxious about the battle of Gettysburg?" "No" he explained, "In the pinch of yor campaign up there, when everybody seemed panic-stricken, and nobody could tell what was going to happen ... I went to my room one day, and I locked the door, and got on my knees before Almighty God, and prayed to Him mightily for victory at Gettysburg.

I told Him that this was His war, and our cause His cause, but we couldn't stand another Fredericksburg or Chancellorsville. And I then and there made a solemn vow to Almighty God, that if He would stand by you boys at Gettysburg, I would stand by Him

And after that ... soon a sweet comfort crept into my soul that God Almighty had taken the whole business into His own hands and that things would go all right at Gettysburg. And that is why I had no fears about you."

On July 15, 1863, President Lincoln asked for a day of national thanksgiving, praise and prayer, exhorting citizens to thank "the Divine Majesty for the wonderful things He has done in the nation's behalf, to invoke the influence of His Holy Spirit to subdue the anger which has produced...a needless and cruel rebellion, to guide the counsels of government, and to visit with tender care and consolation all those who (because of the war) suffer in mind, body, or estate."

President Lincoln was a great Godly leader who knew the Power of Christian Unity. His asking the country to pray in Unity and whole heartedly praying to God during the time of battle caused God to honor his prayers. Instead of a divided country we are a United Country that was United by prayer.

My great concern is not whether God is on our side.
My great concern is to be on God's side.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN