Daily Devotion – July 10, 2020 – Erin Bjerke
I encourage you to read the entire story of Hannah recorded in 1 Samuel chapter 1. Here, I’ve included some excerpts from the story that I’ll be focusing on.
1 Samuel 1
…On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters; but to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the LORD had closed her womb. Her rival used to provoke her severely, to irritate her, because the LORD had closed her womb. So it went on year by year; as often as she went up to the house of the LORD, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. Her husband Elkanah said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?”
After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah rose and presented herself before the LORD. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the LORD. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the LORD, and wept bitterly. She made this vow: “O LORD of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.”
… Then Eli answered, “Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.” And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your sight.” Then the woman went to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband, and her countenance was sad no longer.
“… For this child I prayed; and the LORD has granted me the petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he lives, he is given to the LORD.”
She left him there for the LORD.
Prayer can be downright frustrating at times. We may be thinking, “I’m pretty positive that what I’m asking for lines up with God’s will, so why hasn’t anything happened yet? Doesn’t God care?”
Luckily for us, there are lots of prayer warriors documented in the Bible that we can look up to. Hannah, though a lesser known Bible character, is one of those prayer warriors. Hannah lived with her husband, who adored her very much, and her husband’s other wife, who endlessly taunted Hannah about not being able to have children. Hannah had at least one good thing going for her: her husband, who favored her over his other wife and didn’t care that Hannah didn’t have any children. Despite this, Hannah was miserable. It seems that all she could think about was her desire to conceive a child.
There’s only one record in the Bible of Hannah praying for a child before God answers her prayer, but since she had been miserable for years, I assume she had been praying for a child for all those years. But this last time something interesting happens. Eli, the priest, prays for her too, and then she goes away happy, confident that her prayer will be answered. After all her years of misery, Hannah’s spirits are lifted not when her prayer is answered, but before, when she becomes confident that it will be answered.
I pray that God will give us this kind of faith, too. Hannah pours out all of her anxiety and misery before God and then trusts that God will take care of it.
I’ve been rather impatient in my own prayers lately. When is this pandemic going to end? How many more people are going to die? Are we going to be able to resume our lives as we once knew them? I pray that I will have patience with God’s timing. I pray that I will be able to give all of my anxiety and fear to God and trust God to take care of it.
Prayer: God of the universe, thank you that you care for each one of us. I praise you that you listen to my prayers. Today, I’m anxious/fearful/miserable about ________________. I give that anxiety to you. Please let me trust that you will take care of it and let me be patient with your timing. Amen.
