Hannah poured out everything before God—and walked away before anything had changed. Yet somehow, she was different. In Part 2 of Hannah’s Prayer, we discover what can happen when we entrust our deepest desires to God, and how we can find peace even while we’re still waiting for the answer.

Checkout these other Family Fortress Ministries Podcasts:

TIME FOR THREE daily couples devotional: https://time-for-three.captivate.fm/listen

RELATIONSHIP REALITIES: https://relationship-realities.captivate.fm/listen

Donate: https://familyfortress.org/donate

Free Online Premarital Training: https://preparingforpartnership.org/

Welcome to the Fortifying youg Family podcast.

It can be daunting to navigate through an anti marriage and family culture.

Our teacher will expound biblical principles to help fortify our families and keep these sacred institutions strong.

And now, here's this week's teaching from Sam Wood.

Hannah prayed knowing who God is.

And she prayed knowing who she was and knowing exactly what she wanted and not afraid to ask God for that.

But let me say fourthly and very importantly, she prayed with the right motive too.

She prayed with the right motive again.

In James chapter four and verse three, it says, you ask and receive not because you ask what church, you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lust.

Said if you're not careful, you can pray, you can come to God and you can ask God for things.

You don't receive these things because you're asking wrongly.

You're asking it to do what?

To consume it upon your own lust, the own lust of your heart.

You're not asking for the glory of God.

You're asking for the glory, we might say, of self.

For self glory, not God's glory.

Hannah's motive is revealed in the vow that she makes before God.

Look at it again in verse 11.

But wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.

She refers to the vow at the end of that verse of the Nazirite, the Nazirite vow From Numbers chapter 6, where a Nazirite is totally separated or given over to serving God and being devoted to God fully in their life.

And the most famous Nazarite, I believe in that day and time, and we might know of in the Bible, was a man by the name of what?

Samson.

Okay.

A man by the name of Samson.

So she knew, I believe, from the life of Samson, because probably most likely she was born and raised during the time of Samson.

And she knew what it meant to be separated or to be consecrated, to be set apart to God.

She knew what it meant when she prayed this prayer of a Nazirite that Samson.

She had seen the example of Samson, of someone who is set apart in consecrated to God for his glory and for his service.

And I believe that stood in her mind.

So she prays that her son would be a man who would be totally given over and devoted to God.

Now some might think, and they can read this verse, it'd be easy to think when you read this verse, that she's bargaining with God.

Wouldn't that be easy to think, God, if you do this for me, then I'll do this for.

For you.

But I believe if we really look at this and we understand this, even as I share this morning, that is not at all what she is doing.

One commentator by the name of William Blake says, no doubt she wished the child and asked the child in fulfillment of her own vehement desire.

But beyond and above that desire, there arose in her soul the sense of God's claim and God's glory.

And to these high considerations, she desired to subordinate every feeling of her own.

If God should give her the child, he would not be hers, he would be his.

Wow.

And consider the sacrifice and the type of commitment she's making in this prayer.

She's again, a mother who has this childless.

She's barren, she has no children.

And she's praying to God and saying, God, if you will give me a child, and if you will give me a man child, then I will consecrate him.

And he will take the vow of a Nazirite.

And he will be committed to you all the days of his life.

Which he's saying, literally, is, when I have this child, soon as I wean this child, as we see in the subsequent chapters, he will be given to you for your service.

I'll not get to see him very much.

The only time I'll see him is when I come the temple.

And I may see him as he grows up every now and then.

But I'm not.

He's not going to be in the home with me.

I'm not going to be able to play with him.

Elkanah's not going to be able to pitch ball with him.

I'm not going to be able to do the things most moms around me are going to be doing.

I'm not going to have that social status that so many women desire to have in having a child.

Even though I'd have one.

He won't be here.

So when other people look at me, they'll still think I'm childish because I'll have no child with me.

I will not have that social status that comes along, that cultural identity that I mentioned this morning that would come if she had a child.

Hannah's sole motivation is that she wanted a child for the glory of God, for his glory and for his glory alone.

Let me just add a side note from that example.

I believe the main motive of every Christian parent should be that same motive.

That every child that we have be given to God for his glory, we are to raise them for the Glory of God.

Amen.

Not as a Nazirite, but to be consecrated to God, to live a life that's holy before God.

And whatever their vocation might be, whether it's a preacher or whether it's a doctor or whether it's a construction worker, whatever it may be in their life, that they would be solely set apart to God for the glory of God.

And they would live a life that's pleasing certainly to God.

And every Christian parent should certainly have that in mind and keep that in mind as they raise their children, that the first need of their child is a relationship with Jesus Christ as the greatest need of every child.

But subsequent to that, that they would raise that child and take time to worship God with that child in the home and at church.

That that child would be a child who would grow up and he would walk in the ways of God.

I want you to notice, fifthly and very, very importantly, one other thing here, and that is, she poured her heart out to God.

She poured out her heart to God.

Look at verse 12.

And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli marked her mouth.

Now, Hannah, she spake in her heart.

She spake in her heart.

Only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard.

You couldn't hear her praying.

Her lips were moving, her heart was speaking, but there was no audible voice coming out.

And again, Eli thought she was drunken.

And Eli said unto her, how long wilt thou be drunken?

Put away thy wine from thee.

And Hannah answered and said, no, my Lord.

Notice what she says.

I'm a woman of a sorrowful spirit.

I've drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but.

But have poured out my soul before the Lord.

That's significant, I think in this prayer, she poured out her soul before the Lord.

Listen, Hannah was emotionally real before God.

She was emotionally real before God.

She prayed with a mind that knew God, that knew who God was, and a heart that was emptied out before God, knowing theologically who God is.

Matthew Henry says this.

The prayer came from her heart as the tears came from her eyes.

Hannah is taking the deepest part of her life, the deepest part of her soul which has been raging inside of her.

And she's pouring it out before the Lord.

Wow, that's a wonderful metaphor.

I think that we think of pouring out.

We think of immediately.

I think of having a vessel, having a pitcher that's full of water.

And I pour all that water out.

I empty that pitcher.

I empty that vessel.

She is emptying her soul before God.

She's being real to God.

Real before God.

There's no pretense.

She's totally emptying out herself.

She's not.

She's not ventilating her feelings, and she's not stuffing up her feelings.

She is praying her feelings.

I think it's a good way to put it.

She is praying her feelings.

So she pours out her feelings before the Lord.

Hannah pours out her feelings into the reality of who God is.

And she is not just pouring out her soul.

You might say she is also pouring into her soul.

She is pouring her soul into the theological reality of who God is, knowing who God is and believing in who God is, while God is pouring into her the reality of who he is.

I believe that's why this prayer is so transformative.

I believe there's really all the things I've said here tonight, but I believe two things that really stand to me.

As she prayed knowing who God is, and she prayed pouring her heart out to God.

And when she did this, she changed.

And when we do this, we change.

Hannah's experience, I believe, shows us two things I just want to share with you as we close out tonight when we pray a prayer of faith, number one, Prayer changes us.

Prayer changes us.

When we pray this kind of prayer, look at verse 18.

And she said, let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight.

So the woman went her way and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.

Hannah went into the prayer depressed.

As I said this morning, she couldn't eat.

Her soul was aching.

She came out of the prayer being able to eat and having confidence, total confidence in God.

Hannah had a renewed faith because as she poured her soul out to God, God poured himself into her.

I'm reminded of the verse In Hebrews, chapter 11 and verse 1, where it says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

She had, I believe, that kind of faith.

And I remind you that at that point, she had not seen.

When she got up and she ate and her countenance was no longer sad, she had not seen the answer to her prayer.

I said that this morning.

I'll remind you again tonight.

Me.

That's so significant.

As I said, this morning, she prayed.

She had peace after she prayed, then she got pregnant.

It doesn't say she prayed, got pregnant, then had peace.

It says she prayed, she had peace and she got pregnant.

That's, I think, so, so significant.

Listen.

Her joy was not dependent upon God answering her prayer.

Through giving her a child, she received peace before she ever again received the promise.

Praise God.

We can have that kind of peace as we pour out our soul to God, knowing who he is and as he pours himself back into us.

That we can have a peace that passes all understanding as we cast our cares upon the Lord.

Let me say secondly, prayer changes not only us.

Prayer changes things.

Prayer changes things.

Richard Phillips states, after praying this prayer of faith, Hannah went about her spiritual duties in worship and her conjugal duties in marriage.

She went about doing again.

It changed her what she normally should be doing as a wife and as a mother.

Look at verse 19.

And they arose up in the morning early and worshiped before the Lord and returned and came to their house in Ramah and Elkanah, knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her, her family, her nation, and literally the world around her changed because of her prayer of faith.

I think this brings up a couple questions as I conclude tonight.

What does it mean if we don't get an answer to our prayers like Hannah did?

Many women might pray just as earnestly as Hannah poured their heart, just like Hannah did to a God, knowing who God is.

But they remain childless or their child dies, or their husband doesn't come to faith in Christ.

Does it mean that God loves or cares for Hannah more than God cares for that lady?

Listen.

God hears.

I think we need to be reminded that God hears every prayer and in his sovereign will answers every prayer to his glory for our good.

Some prayers are prayed with the wrong motive and therefore not answered.

Some prayers are answered, but not necessarily according to the way we think they should be answered.

But they are answered many times for our own good, not knowing what we're praying for.

Some prayers are delayed and answered in God's timetable and not on our time timetable.

I love what again, William Blake, the commentator says.

He says, whatever be the reasons for the apparent silence of God, we may rest assured that hearing prayer is the law of his kingdom.

Old Testament and New Testament alike bear witness to this.

Every verse of the Psalms proclaims it by precept and example.

Our Lord constantly enforces it.

Every apostle takes up the theme and urges the duty and privilege.

And what true Christian is there who cannot add testimonies from his own history to the same effect?

If the answer to some of your prayers be delayed, has it not come to many of them?

Will there be prayers that have not yet been answered or in reference to which you have no knowledge of an answer?

Can you not afford to wait till God gives an explanation?

When the explanation comes?

Have you not much cause to believe that it will redound to the praise of God and that many things in reference to which you could not at the time see nothing but what was dark and terrible may turn out, when fully explained, to furnish new and overwhelming testimony that God is love.

It's so beautiful.

In Hannah's case, her prayer of faith was not denied or delayed, but answered through God giving her this child.

Wherefore it came to pass when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived that she bear a son and called his name Samuel, saying because I've asked him of the Lord, Hannah named her child Samuel.

This is significant because as I said this morning, the name Samuel means asked of God and it also means God hears.

God hears.

So wherever Samuel went, he was a walking testimony, the prophet Samuel, to a great and very important truth about God.

He was a living example that when God's people come to him in faith and in humility, the Lord hears and answers their prayers with mercy and with grace.

Praise his name.

Thank you for joining the Fortifying youg Family podcast, and if you feel encouraged by today's teaching, give us a follow so we can invite you back and share us on your socials so more marriages and families can be strengthened and fortified through the truths of God's word.

Remember, fortifying your family starts with a strong belief in God's Word.

Sam.