1 Samuel 1:10 - Oh, woe is me, woe is me . . . . . . . .

"In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord."

Poor Hannah.  She had a husband who loved her but she couldn't have children.   Her husband's concubine gave him children and then ridiculed Hannah for being barren.  Her husband couldn't solve any of these problems and when she went to the temple to pray, the high priest thought she had finally gone over the edge.  From all appearances, Hannah had every right and more to be bitter, and yet she didn't let it fester in her and come out in retaliation.  Hannah took her problem to the only person she knew who could help her - God.  Hannah had faith in God and she relied on that faith to see her through the most difficult time of life.

There isn't one of us that can't identify with Hannah.  It may not be in actual childbearing, but all of us have had plans and dreams and hopes that we wanted to "birth", and yet nothing came of them.  Many have had or still have terrible life situations.   The reasons for the "un-happenings" are as many as there are of us who have unfulfilled dreams and needs.  And I don't doubt that many, many of us have cried buckets of  bitter tears over seemingly lost hopes.  Some may even have allowed the bitterness to escape from their hearts and ended up living hateful lives.   But we can take our example from Hannah and instead of striking out at the world, we prostrate ourselves before the Lord. 

It can be so very difficult to pray in faith when we have horrible, adverse conditions in our lives.  Our basic instinct is to strike out and hurt whatever or whoever has hurt us, but that's not God's way.  The Holy Spirit draws us, calls to us to bring our burdens to the Lord, to lay them at His feet, to leave them there and allow the Lord to work out the problem according to His wisdom.  He knows the plans He has for us and He wants to put them to work.  We must take our hands off and leave everything entirely in the hands of the Lord.   We must be like Abraham when he was to sacrifice Isaac - we must put everything on the altar of God and leave it there - no strings attached.   We must be like Hannah, fully relying on God to answer our prayers in His time and in His way to His glory and honor.

Have we taken our burdens, our hurts and deep needs only to the Lord?  Have we prostrated ourselves before Him and cried out loud to Him?  Have we ignored what the world thought and said and sought only our Lord and Master?  Have we fully trusted in God as Hannah did?  Have we submitted ourselves to God's will for us, no matter what that will may be?

Instead of whining and complaining and doing nothing about what is bothering us, let us take our cue from Hannah and go directly to our Savior and Master and let Him handle the problems for us.  Our job is to take our hurts, broken lives and dreams to the Master and His job is to fix the problem.  Period.  Amen.  Why, oh why, do we feel the need to control everything?  Let go and let God.

"Jesus, Master, lover of my soul, I know you want only the best for me, yet I rail against waiting on You.  My natural self desires to be in control and sometimes it wins.  Forgive me, Lord, and help me to lay everything at Your feet, leaving it there.  My mind trusts you completely, but I don't think my heart does.  I believe, Jesus, heal my unbeief.  Teach me to trust You implicitly.  My only desire is for You to be glorified by my life.  I love you.  Amen"

FOR FURTHER STUDY:

1 Samuel 1:27
Psalm 66:20
Mark 11:24

Psalm 5:2
           39:12
Luke 8:46
        18:1-3