Day5
Week 1
1 Samuel
“So Hannah arose after they had eaten in Shiloh and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a seat by the door of the tabernacle of the Lord. And she was bitter, and prayed to the Lord, and wept severely. So she made a vow and said, “O Lord of Hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant, and remember me and not forget Your maidservant, but will give to Your maidservant a baby boy, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.””
1 Samuel 1:9-11 MEV
Cross references
Job 7:11; Luke 22:44;
Hebrews 5:7; psalm 91:15;
Ecclesiastes 5:4
Desperate
Have you ever been so grieved and bitter that you became desperate?
Hannah could bare this burden no longer. She cried out to God in desperation. She wept bitterly before God. She didn’t care who was watching.
Hannah made a vow to God in her desperation.
This was not a careless vow like some of us have made begging God to rescue us from a mess we created and promising to never do it again only to break the vow and repeat the foolish cycle.
Hannah wasn’t playing games. She was so desperate that she vowed to give up the very thing that she longed for and give her son back to God.
I can not imagine ever doing such a thing.
Hannah must have trusted God immensely to have been able to make a vow like that.
A vow was sacred. It was better to die than to make a vow and not keep it especially unto God.
The same is true today, however our culture doesn’t support that view. God does, though. He doesn’t change.
Ecclesiastes 5:4-5
Are you familiar with the saying, “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”?
Are you in a desperate situation today?
Financial pressure, relationships, mental anguish or maybe childless like Hannah?
Walking through desperate times can lead to hopelessness.
God does not leave us without hope.
Action Step:
Here are 10 verses on Hope.
1.Psalm 62:1-2,5-8;
2.Romans 15:13;
3.Psalm 39:7-8,12;
4.Psalm 71:1-5;
5.Psalm 119:1-6;
6.Lamentations 3:17-33;
7.Isaiah 40:28-31;
8.Psalm 33:18-22;
9.Psalm 119:147;
10.Psalm 130:5-7
Look them up and allow your heart to hope again.
Choose 1 verse to meditate on and pray through your desperate circumstances.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, faith is the evidence of things we can not see.
What do you hope for?
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