Heart Cry

1 Samuel 1

On my first readings of this passage, I found focus upon the prayer of pain. The place of being humbled and crying out to God in need. And this is important. God sees and hears the cry of our heart.

BUT there is more to it than that. Many people pray sincere prayers. Cry out in pain. But prayers do not seem to be answered.

It was on further readings that I started to see something else. Hannah perceives what it is the God of Israel desires. Lives of people given over to Him. What makes Hannah different is not that she seriously wants something. What makes her different is how she shapes the focus of her wants. A Son that is to be given over to God.

And it anticipates Solomon’s prayer: 2 Chronicles 1.7-12; and Jesus’ prayer in the garden: Luke 22.41-44. Bering in the place of brokenness does not mean we are useless. It can be the doorway to effectiveness. Humility married to desire for the purposes of God.

We need to understand that as our lives as are a journey, many of us might not be there when the great events of history – as seen by man - happen. But where, in the midst of suffering and trauma that comes to us as people, we turn ourselves to seek the presence and the purpose of God; then it is that we discover ourselves to be signposts and enablers of others in finding and walking the way of Jesus Christ.