Giving it up
by Sonia Hulme
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Then Hannah prayed and said: ‘My heart rejoices in the Lord’ (1 Samuel 2:1a).
I once listened to an older friend describe the moment her first-born son left home to work in another state. ‘I watched him drive away and cried, thinking nothing in our family would ever be quite the same again. And it never was.’
Hannah would have understood. She had prayed for years for the gift of a child. She promised that if God granted her request, the child would be dedicated to God ‘all the days of his life’. After young Samuel was only just weaned, Hannah kept her promise, leaving him in the care of the priest Eli to be raised in service in the temple. Can you imagine what that was like? Can you imagine how her heart must have struggled to give away the gift she had only just received? And this is where her prayer in today’s passage is prayed! It is a prayer of 10 faith-filled verses proclaiming God’s goodness and his ability to reverse fortunes and bring hope where things seem hopeless.
What is remarkable about Hannah’s prayer is not perhaps what she prays (although it’s pretty amazing) but when she prays it. I don’t know about you, but I’m not often prone to spontaneous faith-filled outbursts in the most heart-wrenching moments of my life. When things are good, yes. When my heart is breaking? Not so much …
How did Hannah do it? How was she able to take her eyes off herself and put them back on God? Somehow, Hannah looked beyond the gift she was given and focused on the heart of the One who gave it to her in the first place. She staked her life on his character and his ability to work in the lives of the feeble, hungry, barren, poor and needy.
I don’t know what losses you are facing today, but I pray that you might have the courage to ‘do a Hannah’. Pour your heart out to him, and then spend some time remembering his character. Speak Hannah’s prayer out loud, proclaim the truth about your God, and see how that shapes your heart.
Lord, you granted the desires of Hannah’s heart, and then she surrendered it all back to you. Help me hold your gifts freely and gratefully today. When my heart is struggling, remind me the truth of who you are and that your heart towards me is good. Amen.
Sonia lives in the north-eastern suburbs of Adelaide with her husband and five children. She works part-time in a support role at Good Shepherd Lutheran School and as a spiritual director, helping people discern God at work in their lives.
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