Hannah’s Prayer: 2 Important Lessons Her Faith Teaches Us Today..... By: Debbie McDaniel

 Hannah’s Prayer: 2 Important Lessons Her Faith Teaches Us Today

By: Debbie McDaniel

“Then Hannah prayed and said; ‘My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance. There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you, there is no Rock like our God.’” (1 Samuel 2:1-2)

Hannah’s story is one of the most well-known stories of faith-filled women mentioned in the Bible. Her longing for a child, and dark season of waiting, has brought countless women (and men) to pore over these pages of 1 Samuel chapters 1-2. At that time in the Bible, barrenness brought deep shame upon a family. Because children were counted as God’s blessing, to encounter infertility was a difficult burden for any couple to bear.

But God never makes a mistake. He never forgets to work on our behalf. And He never ignores our deepest prayers and longings. It’s just that often, many times, His ways are much higher than ours, and His timing is different.

Here are 2 Ways Hannah’s Faith Can Help Strengthen Ours Today:

1. She believed God would do what He said He would do.

“Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast…so in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, ‘Because I asked the Lord for him.’” (1 Samuel 1:18, 20)

As soon as Hannah was on her way, she was no longer downcast. She knew in her heart that God was at work. She had faith in her God who is always faithful. She didn’t doubt, she didn’t worry.

This section of Scripture also says that she “worshipped Him” before they left. She offered to God a sacrifice of praise of worship, believing in His power to do great things. It doesn’t say how long exactly it took. Maybe her faith was still tested. But in the “course of time,” meaning God’s anointed and appointed time, He did a miracle in Hannah’s life, and she conceived and gave birth to a son.

2. She gave God praise for the way He had worked.

“Then Hannah prayed and said; ‘My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance. There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you, there is no Rock like our God.’” (1 Samuel 2:1-2)

This beautiful, anointed prayer of Hannah can be read through the first 10 verses of Chapter 2. It’s similar in theme and thought to Mary’s prayer, the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), spoken as praise to God over the child in her womb, our Savior Jesus. I believe God spoke these words straight to the hearts of these two faith-filled women. Their pregnancies and the births of their sons would impact people, nations, and our world today.

Samuel the priest, was also a prophet, counselor, and Israel’s greatest judge. He was the one who would anoint David as King, who was in the direct lineage of Christ. In fact, many agree that the last verse of Hannah’s powerful prayer is a specific prophecy of Christ the King, “He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed,” (v. 10).

There are never accidents in God’s timing and purposes.

Just as Hannah praised God for being a “Rock,” we too can lean fully on Him. In our ever-changing, hectic world, it may be difficult to know what, or who, we can really trust anymore. But God is secure, He’s our sure foundation, our solid Rock. We can rely on Him who never changes to hold us steady in every tumultuous time. Our God is forever faithful.

No matter what you’re facing today, hope in Him. He will never fail. And He is with you, always.

God Exchanges our Burdens for His Peace..... Denison Ministries

 God Exchanges our Burdens for His Peace

Denison Ministries

Weekly Overview:

This week we’ll spend time simply stirring up our affections for God. God has designed us to see him, to know his character and to let the truth of his goodness lead us into deeper relationship with him. Augustine wrote, “Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.” In seeing God for who he is, our hearts are naturally stirred to find rest in his goodness. May your heart be stirred at the revelation of God’s wonderful character.

Scripture:“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Devotional:

Scripture describes a great exchange of our burdens for the peace of God. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” You have a God who loves you so much that he offers to take your burdens off your own shoulders, place them on his, and give you peace in return. Where does your life feel heavy? Where do you feel buried under the burdens of the world? God offers you his peace today if you will take some time to align yourself with him and “yoke” yourself to the teaching of Jesus.

In Matthew 11, Jesus presents us with an image of two animals sharing the burden of work together. The point Jesus is making here is in reference to coming under his teaching. He asks us, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” He isn’t asking us simply to cast our burdens on him, but also to humble ourselves and submit to his teaching. If we are willing to come underneath him as our Teacher, then we no longer carry the burden of figuring out life on our own. And in freedom we are able to live life under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit.

Do you ever feel alone in what you’re doing? Do you ever feel like peace is an unobtainable goal, blocked by layer upon layer of work you need to get through first? God’s plan is different than the world’s plan. The world says you can only have peace when you’ve completed the job, become the best, or gained the approval of man. God tells you to stop working in your own strength, yoke yourself to his teaching, and rid yourself of all the stress and pressure of the world. 1 Peter 5:7 says “[Cast] all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” You have a God who cares about you. Your God is for you. He knows society tells you to work for and care about certain things, but he offers you the refuge of his peace instead.

You serve a God who doesn’t want you to live even one day burdened. Every day, you can wake up and choose to yoke yourself to your heavenly Father and his word. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Align your mind with what he says about you—casting off every opinion other than his. Align your day with the leading of God’s Spirit, and receive the anointing and power he longs to bring into every situation.

God says, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” If you will choose God today over the way you’ve done things in the past, if you will choose to obey his word, then “you will find rest for your souls.” What area of your life needs rest today? In what parts of your heart do you need God’s peace and ease? He’s waiting right now to meet with you, to offer you his yoke. Let him take your burdens, fears, and stress. Our fragile frame wasn’t meant to bear such pressure. Come underneath God’s teaching today, align your thinking with his, and let the cares of the world fall off as you live in light of the teaching of Jesus.

Guided Prayer:

1. Reflect on your life for a minute. In what areas do you need God’s peace today? It could be your mindset, your appearance, friends, family, work, anything that you feel burdened by.

2. Now offer that area of your life to God and ask him for his opinion. Listen to God and let him tell you what he thinks about you. Look up verses that reveal his teaching on the subject.

3. Meditate on Scripture or what God spoke regarding the area in which you need peace. Let his peace flood that area of your life. Submit yourself to his word. Believe that he sees things truthfully. Whatever God says goes.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Yoke yourself to the teaching of Jesus today. Let his word be your refuge in a world full of opinions. Doing life yoked to God, being obedient to his word, is the best way to walk the path God lays out for us to abundant life. Every day attacks will come your way. But every day God has provided the truth you need in his word to fight those attacks. Choose the word of Jesus today, walk in obedience to it, and experience God’s “rest for your [soul].”

Extended Reading: Matthew 11

A Prayer to Our Long-Suffering God..... By Meg Bucher

 A Prayer to Our Long-Suffering God

By Meg Bucher

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” - 2 Peter 3:9 NIV

The love the Father has for us is displayed in His patience with us. He is a long-suffering God! Long-suffering means enduring injury, trouble, or provocation long and patiently.

“Scoffers use the delay of His second coming to question if He is going to return at all,” the Voice Translation says, “Peter responds by saying that God’s perspective on time is not like ours. What seems long from a finite, human perspective is incredibly short from an eternal one.”

The Voice paraphrase of 2 Peter 3:9 says,

“Now the Lord is not slow about enacting His promise - slow is how some people want to characterize it - no, He is not slow but patient and merciful to you, not wanting anyone to be destroyed, but wanting everyone to turn away from following his own path and to turn toward God’s.”

The word slow, as Peter used it, means to delay. “Delays are not denials,” the NIV Study Bible clarifies. God’s delays don’t nullify His promises. The LORD is patient with us. He does not lose heart. He preservers patiently and bravely in enduring misfortunes and troubles. He is patient in bearing our offenses and injuries. He is mild, slow in avenging. He is long-suffering, slow to anger, and slow to punish. (Strongs.) No matter how crazy the world becomes, we can rely on God. He is the same yesterday, today, and always.

Father,

We thank you for your faithfulness. We praise you for your promises. Great are you, Lord, who has made a way for us to come to you, through Jesus.

Father, I pray you are quick to stir our hearts through the Spirit living in us. Remind us that your presence is with us always through Christ Jesus. Help us to be long-suffering, God, as you are. Teach us to be patient, willing to wait, slow to anger and slow to punish.

God, you are a promise keeper. Some of the direct answers to the questions of pain and suffering in the world will allude us on this side of eternity, but your promises reign true. And eternal life, beyond this world, awaits all who embrace Christ Jesus as their Savior.

You are not slow in keeping your promise, Lord. Not as some understand slowness. You are patient with us, not wanting anyone to perish, but all of us to come to you in repentance. Thank you for being long-suffering.

Bless our lives, Father. Keep us safe, healthy, and guard our hearts in Christ Jesus.

In Jesus’ Name, 

Amen.

Existentialism… The Good Kind..... by Alex Crain

 Existentialism… The Good Kind

by Alex Crain

"Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple…"  - Luke 14:27 NASB

As chapter two of Francis Schaeffer's book, True Spirituality, comes to a close, the author highlights a crucial dimension of the gospel's first fruit (that of dying to self). It is that dying to self must be a continual reality. Schaeffer likens the proper mindset here to that of a philosophical existentialist…

"The existentialist is right when he puts his emphasis on the reality of the moment-by-moment situation. He is wrong in many things, but he is right here. Christ called His followers to continuously carry their own cross. He puts the command not in an abstract but in an intensely practical setting, in verse 26 (of Luke14) relating it to His followers' fathers, mothers, wives, children, brothers, sisters, and their own lives."

"He sets it among the realities of daily life. This is where we must die."

Christ is talking about putting to death what our hearts prefer; what we desire most. And we naturally prefer our own way. ol' blue eyes, Frank Sinatra, set our deeply ingrained theme song to music when he sang, "I did it my way." How can we possibly overcome our instinct to want our own desires fulfilled? It seems to be an impossible command.

Even if we know Proverbs 14:12 "There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death," such knowledge by itself is not enough to subdue a sinful, stubborn will. When the heart wants something, it can charge ahead in a mad quest to get its way without a single thought about consequences.

Paul Tripp and Tim Lane, in their book how people change, cite no less than seven counterfeit gospels that prevent people from dying to self. They feed pride and give others the false impression that we're being true disciples. Because we are so prone to preserve ourselves, we can easily gravitate toward these false gospels. Their appeal is so insidiously strong because they allow us to deceive ourselves and others, AND dodge Christ's benevolent command to die to self. These counterfeit gospels are: formalism, legalism, mysticism, activism, biblicism, therapism, and social-ism.

Formalism says, "I'm always in church, but it really has little impact on my heart or on how I live. I may become judgmental and impatient with those who do not have the same commitment as I do."

Legalism says, "I live by the rules—rules I create for myself and rules I create for others. I feel good if I can keep my own rules, and I become arrogant and full of contempt when others don't meet the standards I set for them. There is no joy in my life because there is no grace to be celebrated."

Mysticism says, "I am engaged in the incessant pursuit of an emotional experience with God. I live for the moments when I feel close to him, and I often struggle with discouragement when I don't feel that way. I may change churches often, too, looking for one that will give me what I'm looking for."

Activism says, "I recognize the missional nature of Christianity and am passionately involved in fixing this broken world. But at the end of the day, my life is more of a defense of what's right than a joyful pursuit of Christ."

Biblicism says, "I know my Bible inside and out, but I do not let it master me. I have reduced the gospel to a mastery of biblical content and theology, so I am intolerant and critical of those with lesser knowledge."

Therapism says, "I talk a lot about the hurting people in our congregation, and how Christ is the only answer for their hurt. Yet even without realizing it, I have made Christ more Therapist than Savior. I view hurt as a greater problem than sin—and I subtly shift my greatest need from my moral failure to my unmet needs."

Social-ism says, "The deep fellowship and friendships I find at church have become their own idol. The body of Christ has replaced Christ himself, and the gospel is reduced to a network of fulfilling Christian relationships."
[From Paul Tripp and Tim Lane's how people change (New Growth Press, 2008)]:

Which one(s) of the counterfeit gospels do you most tend toward?

In the end, only God's grace can subdue the heart of man and turn its desires God-ward. And such grace comes only through the true gospel of Christ. When God brings me around to embrace by faith that it was my moral failure that caused the sinless Son of God to suffer and die and, because of that, God does not treat me as my sins deserve, I see then that anything in life can be received with thankfulness.

How can we carry our cross and die daily? Only God can enable us by His James 4:6 to embrace the good kind of existentialism, depend on Him moment by moment, and continually ring the death knell to "my way."

Intersecting Faith & Life:
Do you see your own need for God's grace every moment so that you can die to self, yielding your desires up to Him? If not, what's preventing that?

Further Reflection:
Read James 4:6