Pray Like Hannah

 Hannah was married to Elkenah.  He also had another wife.  That wife had borne him children.  Hannah had not.  Her most fervent desire had not been answered. 

At what had to have been one of her lowest points, and I think we can all identify with this moment, she is at the temple praying.  It says she is moving her lips but words aren't coming out.  In fact, the priest Eli, accuses her of being drunk.  

In reality she is praying with all her heart.  Perhaps she is so full of emotion that audibly speaking them will unleash the tears.  Perhaps she struggles to even find the right words.  Perhaps she is afraid to even speak out loud those personal desires.  I've been in all of those praying situations, haven't you? 

In 1 Samuel 1:10 it says, "And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore."

Can you feel her there? In the bitterness of her soul? When it feels like there is no goodness left around you, when everything feels too much, too unfair, too dark and just so exhausting? 

She took that whole heavy package to the Lord. 

With honesty and vulnerability she prayed.  

Verse 11 continues with her promise to the Lord.

"And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head."

Let's look closer at how she prayed. What might that sound like in today's words? 

Father, will you please look down and see how I am suffering? Have you heard my prayers? I am wondering if maybe you have forgotten me.  It sure feels like that sometimes.  I am begging you as your daughter.  I know I fall short in so many ways, but please let me know you remember me.  If you will give me a child, my greatest desire, I will dedicate him to your work and kingdom for all of his days.  I will not let the ways and calls of the world be his influences.

Eli tells her her prayers have been heard.  He says, "Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him."

She conceives and Samuel is born.

I am sure she must have had great joy, but she also has her own promise to fulfill.  She will turn her precious child over to the priests to raise in the temple once he has been weaned.  How difficult that moment must have been.  

Hannah show us how to pray.  How to bring our whole self to Heavenly Father- the good, the bad, the rejoicing, the hurt, the ugly- all of it.  She approaches Him with complete honesty. 

When we do that, we can have the same blessing Eli promised her - to go in peace.  

Sometimes we will also have our petitions granted, and sometimes not.  But we can always have peace from knowing we are remembered.  From knowing whose we are and how loved we are.  

We can pray like Hannah.