This month, March 16th
to be exact, I will celebrate the birth of a healthy son, now almost 34, and I
will remember again how powerfully Hannah’s story in the Bible impacted me in
getting to that day. Our paths to
healthy pregnancies and childbirths differed, but both contained seasons of
great difficulty getting to that joyous moment of a much longed for son’s
healthy arrival into the world.
Like
Hannah, I knew something about seeking God, earnestly crying out to Him, to
grant my heart’s desire. She was childless
before her encounter in the tabernacle with Eli, the priest, as she accompanied
her husband on the annual pilgrimage to “worship and sacrifice to the Lord of
hosts” in Shiloh (1 Sam. 1:3). Year
after year, she had prayed for a child, but this time, something deeper and
profoundly more powerful happened as she “was in bitterness of soul, and prayed
to the Lord, and wept in anguish” (vs 10).
After initially thinking she was drunk, Eli realized God was at work,
telling her to “Go in peace and the God of Israel grant your petition which you
have asked of Him” (vs 17).
Her
response is interesting. “Let your
maidservant find favor in your sight,” and she left and was “no longer sad.” That moment of grabbing hold of God brought
acknowledgement from both the priest who witnessed it and the yearning woman
whose prayer had come from some deeper place in her spirit. His benediction and her changed countenance
affirmed God’s presence in it all along with what followed. After returning home, Elkanah “knew” his wife
and “the Lord remembered her” (vs 19).
Her persevering petitioning year after year had been rewarded in ways
that only God can do.
Persevering
petitioning for me came after two pregnancies, the first one healthy bringing a
beautiful baby girl. The second
pregnancy was so very different, threatened less than three months along by a
rupturing water sack. Yet, the pregnancy
continued and so did the difficulties bringing little Dan into the world about
two months early and struggling to live most of his crisis-ridden 17 days of
life. Getting to a place of healthy
peace and Godly assurance of a future, healthy son after such loss came after
months of earnest seeking. I cried out to the living God to “speak” to my fears and
transform me to a person of expectant and hopeful trust and faith in God. In that process, Hannah’s story had much to
impart to my waiting soul.
Being
built up in Christ, in the things of God, is a consistent exhortation in the
New Testament. In Jude, the instructions
are to build “yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit”
and keeping yourselves in the love of God (Jude 20,21). And the building up is pictured both
individually and collectively, as a body.
Paul writes, “Even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts,
let it be for the edification of the church that you seek to excel” (1 Cor.
12).
Being
barren, being grievously afflicted and disappointed—God has things to “say” to us
as we look to His word for revelation and encouragement. Hannah acknowledged she was God’s maidservant,
humbly seeking what she so longed for.
We, too, can come as His children, seeking and finding the hope that
does not disappoint, fueling our prayers to bring powerful results in us and
through us.
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