Hannah’s Request

When I was young, I remember making requests to God. Usually it was for something frivolous like a new bike or a new toy. I was too young to know that God doesn’t work that way. 

I was reading from 1 Samuel today and read the story of Hannah. This is possibly my favorite story in the Bible because, as a mother myself, it tears my heart out to read about a woman who wants a child so badly she begs God for his favor.

This story is wrought with so many emotions: grief, joy, love and of course faith.

Like so many women in the Bible, Hannah was barren. She prayed and prayed for the child she did not have. She wanted him so badly that she told God that she would give her child to him if he granted her request. 

God did hear Hannah’s prayer, and because of her great faith, he granted her request. Hannah had a child. She named him Samuel which means “because I prayed for him” (1 Samuel 1:20). 

Hannah never went back on her word to God. When Samuel was just a toddler, she brought him to the temple and turned him over to the priest, Eli.              

1 Samuel 1:28b says “she left him there for the Lord”. What an act of love! On the trip to the temple, Hannah must have been out of her mind with grief knowing she might possibly never see her child again. 

What a woman of strong character! What a love for God she had; what strong faith she had in the almighty God. 

As a mother, I know of the inseparable bond a mother has for her child. You love them more than life itself. 

Through Samuel’s first years, Hannah must have thought about her promise to God day and night. Did she ever wish that she had never made her vow? Did she try to find a way out of her promise? What if she gave up Samuel and never had any more children? 

Hannah never forgot Samuel; her love for him only grew. She went to visit him at the temple once a year when her family went to make their yearly sacrifice and she brought him a little robe stitched with love.

God never forgets our deepest prayers. Sometimes we do not understand God’s ways. When he doesn’t seem to answer us in our darkest moments, we must reassure ourselves that his timing is different than ours. 

Never give up on God; feel the faith and make your requests. 

Dear God, we admit that sometimes we do not believe that you hear our prayers. Help us to be strong, patient and loving in our faith as we await your word. Amen




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