30 More Days... Day 12

1Sam. 2:1 And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the LORD...

Answered prayer brought more prayer... a prayer of praise.

Hannah had been in grief. She had shed more tears than she cared to remember. Now, that sorrow has been turned to joy. That weeping turned to laughter and gladness. She has prayed. She has promised. She has received from the Lord the desire of her heart. She is in the process of fulfilling her vow. Now she lifts up a heart of praise to God. She recognizes His mighty works.

If you go and read 1 Samuel 2:1-10 you can see her full words of praise.

First she acknowledged the Lord as the source of her salvation and victory. The previous chapter states that this was no miraculous conception. It happened in the normal course of life and in the normal way. There could have been a temptation to attribute Samuel to natural rather than miraculous causes. Perhaps to take at least partial credit. How often after we pray for something and see it answered in a more natural way do we tend to doubt. We tend to wonder if it was just “chance”, “coincidence”. Hannah proclaims the victory and provision to be God’s alone

Second she acknowledges God’s holiness. She proclaims that God was holy and good in all that He did concerning her. She does not feel used or resentful for any of the years of grief she suffered. She focuses on His grace rather than daring to implicate Him as indifferent or impassionate to her previous suffering. Oh, God, You finally got around to answering my request. I guess I can praise You a little now, but it is about time.

Third, she recognizes God’s just judgment. He knows more than we do. He sees, hears, understands and does according to His wisdom. Before she might have had grief and in that sorrow, perhaps, questioned God, as we often do in those situations, now she proclaims His knowledge. People judge from appearances. God judges from truth.

Fourth, in verses 4-8, she lists a group of paradoxes. The strong made weak but the weak helped. The rich hungry but the hungry satisfied. The living dead and the dead resurrected. The barren full of children and the fruitful now weak. She is of course referring to the wrongs she had suffered at the hands of her husband’s other wife and others. How she had been tormented by her. But she left the situation up to God. She called out to Him in her distress rather than taking matters into her own hands. She has left judgment to a righteous God who sees, hears and knows. She doesn’t allow bitterness to keep her from God’s presence. God is able to take any situation and turn it on its ear.

I had a professor in university that told us students that the number grades that we received didn’t mean anything. He could make those numbers mean anything that he wanted them to mean. That was his power as a teacher. The students had spent a lot of time trying to figure out what they needed to get that desired letter grade. Ultimately, the final decision was in the professor’s hand. They need only do their best and leave the rest up to him. If a university teacher has that kind of power, how much more the God of the universe to challenge and change the “curve”.

She praises God for the victory she has received. She recognizes what later would be stated with even greater clarity. Not by might and not by power but by My Spirit. She knows that it is not from her or because of her. She recognizes God’s favor and grace toward her. She doesn’t deserve what she received from the Lord. She recognizes that there is no strength in her to have effected such a blessing. She gives God all the praise for every part of the blessing that He has given her. She takes no credit. She gives no complaint. Her praise resounds in her prayer even as she leaves Samuel to the service of the Lord and returns home, knowing that she has no better hands in which to leave her son.

Prayer Request
*Please pray from the Student Bible study. We meet each week and have been studying through the book of Acts. We have seen God work in lives and His word impact them. We have seen people turning increasingly to the scripture for questions they have. Please pray that people would continue to come and grow. That schedules would not get in the way of them attending. That we would have wisdom for which day to meet as the new semester approaches in October. Pray for new people to come out and attend regularly. Pray for Darja, Matjaz, Mateja, Miha, Katarina, Andrej, Damian, Tadej who have come at least once and most more often. Pray for outreach in meeting new people.