Deeper Reflection
SOMETIMES WE FIND IT DIFFICULT TO SERVE THE LORD with a heart of faithfulness. When we experience disappointments, setbacks or failures in life, we may feel disappointed with God for not answering our prayers. We may end up serving God half-heartedly, or even stop serving Him altogether. When God closed Hannah’s womb and she could not bear a child even after years of trying, her rival regularly taunted her with cutting words (vv.5-7). In her sadness, Hannah wept and refused to eat (vv.7-8). Yet she did not stop worshipping and serving God. Year after year, she faithfully made the journey with her husband Elkanah from Ephraim to Shiloh to sacrifice to the Lord. Hannah brought her burdens before God in prayer with deep distress and bitter tears (v.10). She poured out her soul before the Lord – a testament to her faith in and dependence on God despite her troubled spirit, great anxiety and vexation (vv.15, 16). We too can bring our burdens and anxieties before God in prayer expressed with genuine emotions. The Lord understands how we feel and He has promised to sustain us and lift us up, because He cares for us.³³After the Lord granted Hannah’s request and gave her a son (vv.19-20), Hannah honoured her commitments to God and promptly fulfilled her vow to give her young child Samuel to the Lord for a lifetime of priestly service (vv.21-28). Let us learn to keep faith with God even through the trials of life. Let us faithfully serve the Lord as we trust in Him to answer our prayers in His perfect ways and timing.

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³³ Psalm 55:22; 1 Peter 5:7.