After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the LORD. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the LORD, and wept bitterly. (1Samuel 1:9-10 RSV)
First, let me say that Prayer is talking to God. There cannot be prayer unless there is a belief that there is a God. There is no need of prayer unless there is a belief that he is the source of all goodness and he is all-powerful to defend and fight for his people. Prayer however, is not a key that opens heaven, after-all heaven is not locked. There is no power in prayer otherwise we would have magic prayers, formulas and objects of prayer to ensure the power and strength of our prayer.
Prayer doesn’t have to be proportionate to your problem, your problem might be bigger than your prayer and your prayer might as well be bigger than actually what you are praying for; either way that will not stop answers from heaven. Prayer is a conversation between you and the God you believe.
The power is not in the words you say, the power or actually the weakness of prayer is in the will, belief and intention of the speaker as well as the quality of God one prays to.
It is important therefore that before you pray to be sure about two things: 1- God and
2- You.
Hannah was a member of a culture and religion who taught her and confirmed to her that she was barren not because of any other reason but God. This is how her community understood God. From this point of view, there was logically no need to pray to such a God. But it looks like Hannah understood God differently. When she went before him, she was not praying that God changes his mind about her; all she did was to ask for a child.
Who she was: she was a deeply distressed woman. The Hebrew word is: ‘Mar marah’, she was bitter. That was her state. When she knelt down to pray, she did not just pray for some she theoretical or conceptual thing, but instead, she prayed for something that affected her entire being. Her bitterness was not like our bitterness that lead us into blame games, fighting fellow people, stress and depression; her bitterness was one that led her to God. She had what I call Divine Bitterness. She wasn’t bitter to God but bitter to her situation as a child of God. This helped focus her prayer to the situation and not to any other thing.
Am very sure you don’t talk every time unless you really have something to say and it is necessary. Moreover, you don’t say anything to everyone. If this is true with you, I want you to understand that PRAYER IS TALKING…don’t just talk because you can and don’t talk everything to anyone. Talk when you have that divine bitterness and talk only to God. Not even your pastor, Hannah never talked to Eli the priest until he asked. Talk to God, don’t tell fellow helpless individuals.
God bless you I invoke TRUTH, REASON and FAITH (2Tim 2:7)
Pr. I. T WHITE
The Gospel Hawker
iTiS Well of Worship Ministries (John 4:24)
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24) 