READING: 1 Samuel 1:9-4:11
There are times when the best way we can pray is simply voice a prayer with words in our heart but not aloud on our lips. Sometimes the grief is so intense and the burden so heavy that the best we can do is whisper, but it’s a whisper of desperation.
That’s the prayer of Hannah, at first a barren woman, in today’s story. She could not even eat when others reminded her of her barrenness. Her prayer to God to grant her a son was a prayer, by her own admission, “of great anguish and sorrow” (1 Sam 1:16). She would willingly commit her son to God, but she would need God to grant her request first. All she could do was cry out to God . . . but in such a way that Eli saw her lips moving but heard no sound. He thought, in fact, she was drunk, but she was simply pouring out her heart to God.
Here’s the good news for all of us: God heard the prayer of Hannah that Eli could not hear. In the right time, He granted Hannah a son she named Samuel. He was the one she had requested from the Lord, and he would indeed become the Lord’s spokesman.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Are you carrying any burdens now that you can barely put into words?
TODAY’S PRAYER: “Lord, thank You so much for hearing the words I can hardly say from my heart.”
TOMORROW’S READING: 1 Samuel 4:12-8:22