My read through the Bible plan has me in the first couple of chapters of 1 Samuel. It starts with Hannah. Verse 10 of chapter 1 describes her as being deeply distressed and weeping bitterly as she prayed before the Lord. She was without child in a day and age where truly "women were preserved through child bearing". To top it all of, her husbands other wife treated her unkindly, provoking her and "rubbing it in her face".
Hannah took her grief and pain to the Lord. She knew that only the Lord could open her womb...only the Lord could truly meet her needs and the desires of her heart.
What I love is what the Word of God says she did after she got done praying. Verse 18 says that she went her way and ate and her face was no longer sad. What had changed in her circumstances? Absolutely nothing! But what was changed was her heart. She had gone to God with her hurt and pain and walked away with hope knowing that He would accomplish His will in her life. She lived out 2 Corinthians 1:8-11:
"For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many."
Hannah knew on Whom she must rely and go to. She set her hope on the only One that would not fail her. Her testimony is a sweet reminder to me. It's amazing how quick I am, when a problem arises, to immediately try to "fix things"...to figure out a solution...and I don't even go to the Lord in prayer. I don't exalt and recognize the God Who has already commanded what will be, Who spoke and there was light, Who prepared good works for me to do before the foundation of the world, Who's "foolishness" is wiser than the wisest man, and on and on I could go. There is truly no end to the Glory of God...to His majesty...to His worth!
No matter what the situation, I want to be like Hannah. I want to take my pain, my confusion, my frustration, my heartache, my concern to the Throne of God. To be still and know that He is God. And to get up and walk away no longer sad but saying confidently that "the joy of the Lord is my strength"!
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Lori