Hannah: A Posture of Prayer
Sue Sehulster
July 21, 2024
In today’s message — “Hannah: A Posture of Prayer” — we explored two important life-giving lessons about a posture of prayer that God wants us to adopt as we foster our relationship with Him — one of intimacy, honesty, and relentless pursuit. The two lessons are these, found in 1 Samuel 1:
1 - Hannah persevered in prayer … but with a twist! She faithfully met God in prayer but then surrendered her prayer to God.
2 - Hannah gave the answer to her prayer back to God … with thanksgiving. Like Hannah, we too are called to adopt the same heart-response — that no matter what answer we receive, we can respond with gratitude and praise.
To listen to the full message, CLICK HERE to visit our “Watch & Listen” webpage or CLICK HERE for our YouTube channel.
You can also read the rest of Hannah’s incredible story — her beautiful song of praise and her dedication of her son Samuel in 1 Samuel 2.
There is one additional lesson that I would like to share with you as we explore Hannah’s story, so I invite you to use this final point as a devotional reading to help you continue to grow in your own posture of prayer with the Lord.
Hannah made a choice.
As we read Hannah’s story, we see the depths of Hannah’s suffering. She is one of two wives, and although she is the favored one, she does not have any children which is her greatest heart’s desire – and her greatest grief. Not only is she in tremendous personal pain, but she is also horribly tormented by her sister-wife — constantly subjected to torment, ridicule, and abuse because she could not have children of her own.
The passage says that this went on year after year. Year after year! Can you imagine how horrible that must have been for Hannah? In addition, her husband, Elkanah, didn’t make matters any better by thinking he could solve the problem simply by giving her an extra portion of meat that was sacrificed at the altar. (Not helpful!)
Day after day … year after year …
Would anyone ever blame her if she reacted?
If she hit back out of her own pain and anguish?
If she found a weak spot in Peninnah’s heart and just let her have it?
We can almost see Hannah at her breaking point, hear her as she retorts: “Well, fine — you might have kids but our husband loves me more so I get twice as much steak from the altar! So there!”
Don’t we feel that way in our hearts sometimes …
When we’re hurting, we want to lash out.
We want others to feel our pain.
There’s a reason there’s a saying: “Hurt people hurt people.”
Now I sheepishly admit there’s a part of me in my feisty Irish heart that would love to see a smack-down — for Hannah to really let her have it! (I’m sorry, Lord … I repent!)
But no … Hannah illustrates just the opposite here.
She doesn’t take the bait. She doesn’t lash out or hit back.
In fact, in Hebrew the name Hannah means “grace,” and she did indeed exemplify tremendous grace in the face of such strife and torment.
Sure, she shows emotion as we just read about in verse 7:
“This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat.” —I Samuel 1:7
Hannah can barely function. She cries and can’t eat. She’s a human being after all — one who feels desperate, whose heart is broken. I would react too!
Now, I’m not saying we’re supposed to be doormats or simply take abuse that’s hurled at us — that’s not the point here. But we do see that she didn’t strike back.
Instead … in the face of the most impossible situation, one of great pain and grief, Hannah made a choice.
She chose to seek God first!
Right from the start of our story, it says Hannah went up to the house of the Lord — year after year. Every year she would accompany her husband to the temple in Shiloh, and every year she would pour out her heart to God. Time and time again, she let what she knew to be the truth of who God is rule her response instead of her feelings. She took actionable steps to go to God with her broken heart — with her longings, with her deepest desires — rather than having a knee-jerk emotional response to what was going on around her.
I want to believe that Hannah knew the difference between the fleeting, temporary relief she might have received by lashing out at her rival versus the long-term peace and freedom from knowing that God is the one who hears and sees and fights for her.
If she responded from her flesh —from her pain, her anger, her anguish— she would never have experienced the comforting and life-giving words that Paul writes about much later in I Corinthians:
“No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it.” —I Corinthians 10:13 (The Message)
Year after year, the ridicule continued. And year after year, Hannah went to the altar to seek God. Hannah made a choice — and refused to take the bait. Instead, she chose to trust God.
The Message version describes her response this way:
“Then she pulled herself together, slipped away quietly, and entered the sanctuary.” —I Samuel 1:9-11 (The Message)
I love that! That’s a beautiful picture of her heart-posture right there in action. She knew where to go. She knew what she had to do. And she knew that God would meet her there in her place of greatest pain.
If we’re being honest with ourselves … how often do we respond like this? How often do we have this same heart-posture of going to God directly instead of reacting?
Instead of a furious text with a dozen angry emojis …
Instead of going to all of our friends to get them on our side with a furious outburst: “Can you believe what she did to me?!”
It’s kind of a convicting thought, isn’t it …
I want to remind myself of this first step that Hannah took — when I’m faced with a difficult situation or an anxiety-riddled decision or painful circumstances to go directly, immediately to God. Like Hannah, I want to keep making that same choice. I want to choose not to react to the situation around me — to let it swallow me up, to consume me, to cause me to react out of anger or retribution — but rather each and every time, I want to turn to God first! Whether that’s in prayer or worship, reading Scripture or simply pouring out my heart … like Hannah, we too have a choice to make.
David wrote about this so encouragingly in Psalm 105:
“Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.” —Psalm 105:4
That is our choice!
The same choice that Hannah made — over and over again. And may you be encouraged today that you too, with God’s help, can make that same choice, allowing you then to experience the peace and freedom that only He can bring. Amen.
Prayer and Praise
Are you finding yourself trying to navigate that tension of the “now and the not yet” — of praising God with a thankful heart in spite of your circumstances? Here are a few powerful worship songs that speak perfectly to this heart-response as we praise God regardless of what is going on around us:
“Praise” (Elevation Worship)
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I’ll praise in the valley
Praise on the mountain
I’ll praise when I’m sure
Praise when I’m doubting
I’ll praise when outnumbered
Praise when surrounded
‘Cause praise is the water
My enemies drown in
As long as I’m breathing
I’ve got a reason to
Praise the Lord
Oh, my soul
Praise the Lord
Oh, my soul
I’ll praise when I feel it
And I’ll praise when I don’t
I’ll praise ‘cause I know
You’re still in control
Because my praise is a weapon
It’s more than a sound
Oh, my praise is the shout
That brings Jericho down
I won’t be quiet, my God is alive
So how could I keep it inside?
Praise the Lord
Oh, my soul
I’ll praise ‘cause You’re sovereign
Praise ‘cause You reign
Praise ‘cause You rose and defeated the grave
I’ll praise ‘cause You’re faithful
Praise ‘cause You’re true
Praise ‘cause there’s nobody greater than You
Praise the Lord
Oh, my soul
“Highlands / Song of Ascent” (Hillsong)
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Oh, how high would I climb mountains
If the mountains were where You hide
Oh, how far I’d scale the valleys
If You graced the other side
Oh, how long have I chased rivers
From lowly seas to where they rise
Against the rush of grace descending
From the source of its supply
‘Cause in the highlands and the heartache
You’re neither more nor less inclined
I would search and stop at nothing
You’re just not that hard to find
I will praise on the mountain
And I will praise you when the mountain is in my way
You’re the summit where my feet are
So I will praise You in the valleys all the same
No less God within the shadows
No less faithful when the night leads me astray
‘Cause You’re the heaven where my heart is
In the highlands and the heartache all the same
Oh, how far beneath Your glory
Does Your kindness extent apart
From where Your feet rest on the sunrise
To where You sweep the sinner’s past?
And oh, how fast would You come running?
If just to shadow me through the night
Trace my steps through all my failure
And walk me out the other side
For who could dare ascend that mountain
That valleyed hill called Calvary
But for the one I call Good Shepherd
Who like a lamb was slain for me
Whatever I walk through, wherever I am
Your name can move mountains wherever I stand
And if ever I walk through the valley of death
I’ll sing through the shadows my song of ascent
From the gravest of all valleys
Come the pasture we call grace
A mighty river flowing upward
From a deep but empty grave
So I will praise You on the mountain
I will praise You when the mountains in my way
You’re the summit where my feet are
I will praise you in the valley all the same
No less God within the shadows
No less faithful when the night leads me astray
You’re the heaven where my heart is
In the highlands and the heartache all the same
“Hallelujah Anyway” (Rend Collective)
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I’ll find a way to praise You
From the bottom of my broken heart
‘Cause I think I’d rather strike a match, than curse the dark
Yeah I’ll find a way to thank You
Though bitterness is real and hard
‘Cause I’d rather take a chance on hope, than fall apart
I don’t think I’m ready to surrender into the dark, no
Even if (even if) my daylight never dawns
Even if my breakthrough never comes
Even if I’ll fight to bring You praise
Even if my dreams fall to the ground
Even if I’m lost, I know I’m found
Even if my heart will somehow say
Hallelujah anyway
Yeah, I hear a hymn of triumph
In the wilderness of my lament
In the lowlands or the mountain tops, I won’t forget
All that goodness that You have shown me
The promises that You have kept
There’s better days on the horizon up ahead
Let it rise, let it rise
In the dark or the light
Oh, my soul, stand and fight
If you’ve got a song to sing, let it rise
Let it rise, let it rise
Even if my daylight never dawns
Even if my breakthrough never comes
Even if I’ll fight to bring You praise
Even if my dreams fall to the ground
Even if I’m lost, I know I’m found
Even if my heart will somehow say
Hallelujah anyway