Day 115 – Hannah’s Prayer

• This sunny weather that we have been enjoying reminds me of a holiday I took a few years ago to Barcelona…. back in the day when we could go on holiday! On the way back from that trip, I remember looking out of the window and enjoying the view of the snow-capped mountains below. I could see for miles and miles, undoubtedly on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, all of whom were going through their everyday lives below, with the happiness, heartbreak, challenges and opportunities that life brings to us all. In today’s passage, as we see the birth of Samuel, we’ll be reading about his mother; a lady who had great sadness in her life who brought her difficulties to God. We’ll see how God answers her prayer, and how she responds.
• You might not have known anything about Hannah before you started reading today. What have you learned about her?
• Why was Hannah very sad? How did Elkanah’s other wife make her sadness worse?
• What did Hannah tell God she would do if God would answer her prayers for a child? What does her vow remind you of?
• What did Eli think of Hannah when he first saw her in 1 Samuel 1:12-14? Are first impressions always right? Do you sometimes jump to conclusions, like Eli did, and later regret them?
• Was Hannah’s prayer answered? What kinds of things did Hannah say to God after He answered her prayer, and did she keep her earlier promise?
• Hannah’s prayer in 1 Samuel 2 is wonderful, and it sets the tone for the rest of the book. In it she thanks God for His answer to prayer, and puts Him first in her life. What other themes can you find in the poem? For example, what can you see in her words about God caring for the weak and the outcast?
• What does God say each one of us should do when we feel worried or anxious? What does God promise to do if we cast our cares on Him through prayer? The passage in Philippians will help you, as will our time thinking about prayer in Cells a few weeks ago when we finished our time in the book of James.
• You might recognise Philippians 4:7. We often say it at the end of a service. Why do you think we say it so often?
• Samuel is an important figure in the Old Testament story, which is why we’re reading carefully about his birth. He was a prophet. Do you know anything else about him from memory already?

If you have a few more moments, you might like to delve deeper today. If so, think about the following questions:

• Do you think Hannah thought that she could only find an identity as a woman if she had a baby? If you (or your future wife, Jonah and Harry) wanted a baby and found you couldn’t, could you come closer to God through your sadness like Hannah did?
• Read Mary’s song in Luke 1. Mary sings this after being told that she would give birth to Jesus. What similarities can you find between her song and Hannah’s?

Once again we read today of God working through a seemingly empty situation to bring about not just happiness for one family, but also, as we’ll be reading over the next couple of weeks, great things for the nation of Israel (Samuel brought God’s wisdom to the people and the kings of the time). We’ve read of many women who, through faith, saw good out of seemingly hopeless situations (Sarah, Rachel, Rahab and Ruth come to mind) and it’s happening again now with Hannah as we see God answer her quiet, determined faithfulness.

Today’s passage can be interesting on a theological level if you dig into it as such, but it’s also just a good story. It’s one you probably didn’t know, but I hope it’s one you’ll quietly remember. As you write your notes, think about how you’re going to be using these notes in the future to encourage and remind yourself about this. How will you remember about Hannah, and Eli, and the birth of Samuel? What can you do, or write about, or consider, that will help make this not just another study, but another brick built into your understanding of how God worked in this part of history?

Don’t forget the pages at the front of your journal, which are there for you to write down any encouragements, favourite verses or struggles. There may not be any particularly from today, but do continue to use these pages if you would like to do so.