Fervent

Are there things you’ve grown tired of giving over to God?  When have you been the most persistent in prayer? I  have several ways to answer that one, so I think back to a time when I was desperate in prayer and go to the book of Samuel – remembering well.

Hannah taught me how to pray. An example of a woman of fervent prayer, a mother devoted to God and her family. Her story is of hopelessness but miracles, persistence but humility, which can be a tricky mix. Through surrender comes amazing strength.

Hannah is described as downhearted. I loved her from the moment I met her on the pages of I Samuel so long ago.  When I looked into her life I could relate . . . she was deeply troubled and had nowhere to turn. She was dealing with a woman who tried to break her and she also desperately wanted a child.  You don’t have to be in that place to be blessed and encouraged in the prayer life of Hannah because it teaches rich lessons wherever we are in the moment.

There is no one holy like the Lord – nor is there any rock like our God ~ I Samuel 2:2

She knew and believed in her Lord of Hosts – the mighty Jehovah Sabaoth who commands armies of angels.  So she left the battle with Him.  Even so, it tells us she went to the tabernacle and prayed over and over.  And over. Continually.

She remained faithful and fervent, pouring out her prayer before the only One who could change the course of life.  Hannah’s testimony declares that a sovereign God can and does reverse human circumstances. Mine, too.

In a world of unrest, we need to be intentional and fervent.  Fervent isn’t an every-day word, but it should be since it means “having a passionate intensity – earnest intent.”

Do you have an earnest intention to lift up the needs that bring your heart down?  I think of the way this woman prayed for a son to be born – if only we would pray with the same tenacity to have those who need to be re-born . . . if.

Verse :18 sums it up for me when she says, “let your maidservant find favor in Your sight.  So the woman went her way and her face was no longer sad.”  Even though nothing had changed (except her countenance and faith) she believed and walked on, but then . . .

The Lord remembered her – and she gave birth to Samuel, a king and a prophet.  And children after him.

In the margin of an old Bible I have written “Shane 1975” – a son who was born to me months later that changed my life.  Changed my little faith and my un-fervent prayer life.  A child I didn’t think I could carry to term after suffering three miscarriages following the birth of a daughter and first son.  A child I wondered how I would raise on my own with two others after their father walked away.  A child who nearly died at 14 months and again at 24 years old after a near fatal accident leaving him in a trauma unit for three months. That child that taught me to pray fervently and believe in a sovereign God that reverses circumstances with miracles.  That God.

And I thank Him every—–day.

Dear friends — make the name of Jehovah Sabaoth your own and pray intentionally and fervently.

 

Indeed there is no one besides Thee . . .

Hannah (I Sam 2:2)