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Last Updated on : Saturday, October 11, 2014

 

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selah

 

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Chapter 2:
Hannah's Prayer


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CONSIDER Hannah's example. Her story is well known. Hannah longed for a child, but it was denied her until after much prayer she was granted her request, and received the desire of her heart. She was to become a mother and so fulfil the wish of every woman in Israel. Motherhood was particularly desirable in Israel, for the covenant promised that the "seed of the woman" would bruise the serpent power, and every Godly woman desired to contribute to that end. So Hannah hoped and prayed, and hoped and prayed again, until, in the goodness of God, her ardent ambition was realised in the birth of little Samuel.

Did Hannah then, in her excess of joy and the love that she poured out upon the child, forget her obligations to God? By no means! Having experienced the goodness of Yahweh in the birth of Samuel she turned to Yahweh in fervent thanksgiving. More, she attempted to repay God, and so endorse the genuineness of her thanks, by a most generous act of unselfishness: she gave the child back to Yahweh. Her thanks were endorsed by sacrifice. Yahweh's gift to her found response in her gift to Yahweh.

What a wonderful example. We often pray for things; do we remember to thank God in return when the prayer has been answered? Thanksgiving is a gracious act of recognition of benefits received. What is the normal reaction to circumstances when a generous warmhearted deed that has been unselfishly done for another is taken for granted, or is received coldly, or with indifference? Is it not one of hurt? Is it not a divine command that we "in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (1 Thess. 5:18)? Let us be warm in our expressions of thanks one to another; and above all to God.- H.P.M.

 


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