Hannah had a problem. Don’t we all? Look around you. Everyone you meet is fighting a battle or struggling with a broken heart.
Hannah’s problem was infertility. In her culture, people were required to bear children. Women who were unable to have children were looked down upon by friends and neighbors and thought to be cursed by God. Her husband’s other wife, Peninnah, ridiculed and taunted Hannah mercilessly because she didn’t have any children, which made her feel even worse.
1 Samuel 1:6-7- 6 And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb.7 And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat.
A lot of people would have hardened their hearts, given up, and stayed home, but Hannah persevered. She didn’t lose faith in God or blame Him for letting this happen. She humbled herself before Him and trusted in God alone.
1 Peter 5:6-7 tells us to 6Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time: 7Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.
Psalm 31:1 In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness.
Hannah prayed instead of worrying. While attending their annual worship service, Hannah took her problems to God through prayer. These verses in 1 Samuel, Chapter 1, say this about Hannah: She wept in anguish (v. 10); She made her request to God (v. 11), and we should do the same as Philippians 4:6-7 tells us 6 Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God 7and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.; Hannah made a vow to God (v. 11) as we are counseled to do in Psalm 37:5 Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. She continued in prayer (v. 12), she prayed with her heart (v. 12), and she poured out her heart to God. Luke 18:1 And He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; John 4:23-24 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. James 5:16-18 Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. 17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
Hannah believed in God’s promises, His word, and His power to answer her prayer. 1 John 5:14-15 And this is the onfidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us: 15 And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.
Tune in next month to find out more about how God answered Hannah’s prayer.
- Paul Brow, Haven of Rest
