The Scriptures are 1 Samuel 1:1-2:11
Author : Gladys M. Hunt

Waiting is one of the hardest things we do, especially when the years go by and we see no fulfillment of our dreams and hopes. It's a good thing to learn to wait; we spend a large amount of our lives waiting.

Hannah knew the misery of waiting for dreams that did not come true. She was childless. It didn't help that the second wife her husband had taken mocked Hannah by gloating over her many children. Even her husband Elkanah didn't seem to understand her acute distress.

When Hannah poured out her agony before God, Eli the priest didn't understand either. He thought she was drunk. Yet something about going before God and spelling out her trouble reminded Hannah who God was. She expected Him to look on her, to remember, and give her a son. She went away contented. God understood; He would remember her.

Hannah's prayers were answered. She conceived and had a son. When he was old enough, she took him, as she had promised, to the house of the Lord and gave him back to God.

Hannah's second prayer (1 Samuel 2:1-11) is far different from the pain of her first prayer in 1 Samuel 1:11. It's an amazing song of praise to the God whom she sees as sovereign over all of life. Reread it and notice all that Hannah believes about God. Can we say we believe these things?

Hannah makes no mention in this second prayer of the son for whom she prayed so fervently. The subject is not her need or her son. The subject of this prayer is God!

Could it be that Hannah learned what we need to learn - that it is God who makes life complete? Oh, we yearn for this and ache for that. We concentrate on our need instead of on God. It is God who is enough. "The Lord" Hannah says, "is a God who knows" (1 Samuel 2:3). No wonder the Scripture says over and over: Wait for the Lord! Not for the thing you want, but for the Lord!


I will never cease to be amazed how things like this are given to me when I need them the most.