READING:
One-year plan: 1 Samuel 1-4, Luke 15:11-32
Two-year plan: Numbers 1, Mark 5:1-8
———
Maybe you’ve been there. The needs of your heart are great—overwhelming and agonizing, even. It seems they never go away—not unlike the anguish of a barren woman named Hannah in today’s Old Testament reading whose rival had continually taunted her for her infertility. The phrases throughout the reading take us into her heart:
- “Hannah would weep and would not eat.” (1 Sam 1:7)
- “Deeply hurt, Hannah prayed to the Lord and wept with many tears.” (1 Sam 1:10)
- “I am a woman with a broken heart. I haven’t had any wine or beer; I’ve been pouring out my heart before the Lord.” (1 Sam 1:15)
- “I’ve been praying from the depth of my anguish and resentment.” (1 Sam 1:16)
In the midst of Hannah’s pain, though, she shows us what we need to do with that pain: pray to the Lord. With weeping. While forgoing eating. Pouring out our heart. From the depth of our being. Driven by anguish.
Something happened to Hannah, too, through those gut-wrenching prayers, as the despondent woman at the first part of the story went on her way, eating again, and no longer looking despondent (1 Sam 1:18). Prayer just does that, you know. . . .
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Are you praying with many tears today?
PRAYER: “God, help me to trust You when my heart is broken. ”
TOMORROW’S READINGS:
One-year plan: 1 Samuel 5-8, Luke 16
Two-year plan: Numbers 2, Mark 5:9-20