And Hannah Prayed and Said

"And Hannah Prayed and Said" – 1 Samuel 2:3-8 In life we must give account, and no one is living alone on this earth. Man is fragile: let one thought disturb him, and see whether he does not lose his mind at night. Hannah is known because she had no son, she prayed to God, and God gave her a son; but the great thing in her story is not the gift, it is the God who revealed Himself to her in that prayer. Her thanksgiving was dictated not only by the spirit of prayer, but by the spirit of prophecy, and in it she set down for our lives who the Lord is. We are unjust if we do not pay Him the tribute of praise and gratitude for what He does when we pray.

I. There is none holy as the Lord; neither is there any rock like our God; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed (1 Samuel 2:2-3).

A. Hannah celebrates three things about God in her song.

1. His absolute holiness: there is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside Him.

2. His omnipotent power: there is no refuge like our God.

3. His unsearchable wisdom, the wisdom that cannot be known, for the Lord is a God of knowledge. And His justice is infallible: it cannot err, there is no mistake in it.

4. What she spoke is wholly prophetic, because only a prophet can say what she is saying. And she was neither a priest nor an appointed prophetess: she was a woman who came into contact with God, and God revealed Himself to her.

5. When one has contact with God, God reveals Himself to us; but if we walk this earth stumbling about, He does not.

B. To recognize the favor received and render Him praise.

1. Praise is the tribute for the good and the favors God grants us. She felt bound to give thanks, and her thanksgiving is called prayer.

2. We, on the other hand, live in lament, in complaint, in the problem and in the circumstance. We speak emptily and shallowly, with little action of faith: common sayings that even the one who does not know God speaks.

3. Instead of being victorious, we are like those of the world, because that is how the one who has not known God speaks. He who has had an encounter with God does not speak so lightly.

4. A people scarce in prayer is a people that obtains nothing. We breathe because God holds our breath of life and we eat because in His mercy He provides; but where are the miracles?

5. When she prayed, her voice was not heard: it was a murmur, an anguish. But in her thanksgiving she spoke so that all could hear her. On the day God answers, one can testify of the great things He does for the righteous.

II. She praised the Giver and passed over the gift.

A. She almost passes over the gift in order better to praise the One who gave it.

1. She sees that the favor is undeserved, that she does not merit it; therefore she passes over the gift. Who gave her the son? God. So the Giver is God.

2. When God gives us gifts, we fix our eyes on the gift and we live in the gift. Most people forget the giver in order to cling only to what was received.

3. She brought Samuel to the temple and detached herself completely: her heart was torn, she brought him clothing, but she had no contact with the child, no kiss, no embrace, not his first words.

4. It is an act of faith of someone brave: "I hand him over to God, because if God heard me, God already has him and God will use him." And so it was: God brought him to be the prophet who anointed kings.

5. She did not remain tied to her son nor to child-rearing alone: she became a woman full of wisdom, knowledge, counsel, and power, and she grew in loving God above all things, more than her children.

6. She labored so that her son would be a servant of God. Now tell me how much we labor so that our children may be men and women of God. The way we raise them is what we form in the one we have in our life.

B. To stop living so much for ourselves.

1. We live pleasing ourselves twenty-four hours a day, and life is not giving someone four dollars: life is when one pours himself out.

2. The concern that is born of love leads to prayer, and prayer leads to an action that does that person good. If there is a people that cries out, God wants to hear it in order to answer and do the work.

3. It is when one's action produces a miracle in someone, and when our speech is not what we intend, but a two-edged sword that pierces a heart so that it seeks God.

4. Today people live very proudly and only for themselves. There are tears that are unnecessary, and there are tears that God tells us we must begin to develop.

III. The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength (1 Samuel 2:4-5).

A. At God's command the strengths are reversed.

1. The strong are left disarmed and powerless to carry out what they did before and what they planned to do afterward.

2. Those who before stumbled from distress and weakness, and could not even stand, are girded with power in body and soul and feel able to carry out great things.

3. Through Hannah is revealed God's ability to give strength to the weak, to break the bows of the mighty, and to change the situation of those who trust in Him.

4. There are things that sometimes must be said and are not said, and things that must be fought for and are not; then we remain in the pool of weakness and slowly drown.

5. To do the work of God one must take hold of prayer, and no one can take prayer away from you.

B. Let arrogance not come out of your mouth.

1. Hannah was mocked over something as tender as not being able to bear children; she had enemies. After being blessed, her confidence in God lets her speak about them without fear.

2. This is how the mouth of the arrogant is shut: by letting them see that God was with her, by showing the miracle of God, because she prayed and God answered.

3. Never let anyone destroy your faith with a joke or with mockery. Learning to answer is not being unruly, but making known the God who has come out in our favor.

4. We already have, in ourselves, a worth before God. Who opens heaven? Your prayer; and God hears you.

IV. The Lord killeth, and maketh alive; he bringeth low, and lifteth up; for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's (1 Samuel 2:6-8).

A. God is sovereign owner of life and of death.

1. The day of each one belongs to God. For God there is nothing too difficult, not even to raise the dead and to put life into dry scattered bones.

2. The rising and the falling in life are also from God: some He brings down and others He lifts up; He humbles the proud and gives grace and honor to the humble.

3. Children think the one in control is mom and dad, and the worker thinks it is the boss; in the end the control is all in God's hands, and what we must do is be meek.

4. The enemy does not rise on his own: with Job he had to present himself before God and ask permission, and God told him this far. Only God has power to bring down the proud and break the haughty.

5. The day does not turn bad all at once: it grows difficult little by little, to see whether there is any reaction in us and any humbling. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up (James 4:10); everyone who humbles himself before Him, God raises up.

B. The pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon them.

1. Every leader, ruler, and head of state seems to be the pillar around which everything turns, and they seem to be the ones making the changes; but from Him they have received the power and authority they hold, and therefore He can raise or bring down whom He wills.

2. We must be careful about giving opinions, because we may be rebelling against God. We are not analysts and we do not know what lies behind it all; what we do know is that we are men and women of prayer.

3. Can we do anything? Pray. There is no power in our talk nor in our opinions; God is the One who carries the earth, and each one will go as God carries him.

4. He upholds all things by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:3): an omnipotent power that cannot be resisted nor manipulated. That is what gives us rest.

5. When one is full of complexes and insecurities, one talks without rhyme or reason, and poor are the ears held captive by what is not worth it. Let us stop trying to be great and be still, humbling ourselves each morning before the One who truly can bring down whom He wills. Amen.