Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com In Christ, Mark
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Then Hannah prayed and said:
My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in Your deliverance.
1 Samuel 2:1
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
In Chapter 1, we studied the events that surrounded Samuel’s birth and subsequent dedication to the Lord. Hannah, Samuel’s mother, fulfilled her vow to give her son to the Lord if she were allowed to have one, leaving Samuel with Eli after his three years of weaning.
Now, you would think that this act…this surrendering of your only son to the Lord and the guardianship of the priest Eli…would have returned Hannah to the downtrodden state of mind that led her before to weep constantly and refuse to eat. But as 1st Samuel, Chapter 2 begins we see that this was the last thing that Hannah does.
For we see in scripture where Hannah turns to the Lord in prayer, not a prayer of petition and need as in chapter 1 but rather a prayer of praise and thanksgiving. I will cover portions of this prayer in the next several devotionals as Hannah proclaims reasons to praise the Lord. First off, we’ll look at reason 1…Praising the Lord because He delivers us.
In Hannah’s case, we know she had been barren and harassed persistently by Penninah, Elkanah’s other wife who had bore two sons and daughters as well, although we’re never told how many. Such was Hannah’s anguish over her inability to have a child and having to endure Penninah’s provoking that she found herself sorrowed to the point where she stopped eating. At rock bottom, she prayed to the Lord from her heart, pouring out her soul and promising to give her son to Him if she were just allowed to conceive and deliver. And we have seen in the past with God, He heard the cries of Hannah and answered her prayer.
As Hannah conceived, bore and weaned Samuel through his first three years, she was delivered from her anguish and hardship to a place of joy and peace and praise. As she opens her prayer after giving Samuel to Eli, we see first hand the depth of her happiness as she says, “My heart rejoices in the Lord”, the same heart that she had prayed so fully from, emptying her frustration and despair so the Lord could fill it with exaltation and thanks and rejoicing.
Indeed, the Lord had delivered Hannah from her hardship and she, in turn, delighted in that rescue and the victory over her enemies. We don’t hear anything else out of Penninah after Hannah conceives and gives birth to Samuel because the source of her sinful tormenting is gone. And Hannah, liberated from humiliation, finds her horn lifted high symbolizing her newfound emotional strength and spiritual power evident in her prayer.
We too, like Hannah, should feel our own sense of emotional strength and spiritual power through God because He has, is and will continue to deliver us each and every day He blesses us with. And as we experience and acknowledge this deliverance, we too, like Hannah, will find ourselves rejoicing…lifted up and delighted…by the only One who can save us. Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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