For This Child I Have Prayed (1 Samuel 1:4-20)
Tammy, the boys, and I grew close with a younger couple at one congregation where I was preaching—Craig and Courtney. We ate together frequently, Craig came over to the house to watch movies with me when he also had Friday off, and Craig and Courtney were both great and active servants in that congregation. However, Craig and Courtney didn’t have any children, but they desperately wanted children. If you looked high and low, you would never have found more worthy candidates for parenthood than they.
As our relationship grew, I learned that Craig and Courtney were seeing different physicians in an attempt to conceive a child. One Sunday, when Craig led the singing, just before the closing song, he leaned into the microphone and said, “Courtney’s pregnant.” You should have seen the congregation’s reaction—there were tears and laughter and hugs and prayers of thanksgiving. A few months later, Craig and Courtney welcomed a healthy baby boy into the world.
Have any of you experienced fertility issues? Maybe you yourself struggled to welcome a baby into this world. Perhaps your children struggled to make you a grandparent as you anxiously waited. You might have worshiped with someone in this congregation—or another one—who struggled with fertility issues. You may have a family member or close friend who chose to adopt because of fertility issues.
This morning’s text is about a woman named Hannah who struggled with fertility; in fact, “the LORD had closed her womb” (1 Sam 1:5). Hannah couldn’t go to a fertility specialist or an adoption agency—they weren’t available. But God was—and still is—available, and Hannah went to God in prayer. Hannah’s request to God makes clear: “God answers prayer.”
Scripture (1 Samuel 1:4-20)
verses 4-5:
Some sacrifices were totally consumed by the fire, but some sacrifices required portions to be eaten by the worshiper. Because he deeply loved her, Eli gave Hannah a double portion.
verses 6-8:
Hannah’s rival—Peninnah—provoked Hannah because she had no children, and Hannah’s mental state wouldn’t permit her to eat. Please understand that children were considered a necessity in antiquity; without children Hannah would have neither protection nor provision in her old age.
verses 9-11:
Hannah got up, went to the tabernacle, and prayed to God by making a vow. People commonly made vows to God in the Old Testament; they normally promised to act in a certain way if God granted a request. Hannah vowed to dedicate her son as a Nazirite all his life.
verses 12-18:
Eli thought Hannah was drunk, for she was praying without doing so verbally. However, Hannah explained she was praying, and Eli blessed her.
verses 19-20:
God remembered Hannah and gave her a son. She named her son Samuel, which, in Hebrew, sounds like “heard of God.”
Application
“God answers prayer.” Hannah’s barrenness distressed her. She prayed to God for a child. God remembered her and gave her a son. The same God who heard Hannah still reigns from heaven, and the same God who answered Hannah still answers prayer.
“God answers prayer.” “And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Lk 11:9). “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (Jn 15:7). “Whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him” (1 Jn 3:22).
Do you want God to answer your prayers? Hannah demonstrated how you can find an answer to prayer.
One: Shortage
When you pray, you must have a Shortage, a need. Hannah knew her Shortage—a son; she prayed, “O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son. . . .” (1 Sam 1:11).
When you pray, know your Shortage; in other words, what do you lack in life? Those who came to Jesus for healing knew their Shortage. “Behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, if you will, you can make me clean’” (Matt 8:2). “Behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, ‘My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live’” (Matt 9:18). “A man came up to him and, kneeling before him, said, ‘Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly’” (Matt 17:14-15).
Those poor souls took a direct need to Jesus. Granted, they spoke with Jesus while he walked this earth, but when you pray you’re speaking to that same Lord who has that same power. What is your Shortage this morning?
Two: Supplication
Hannah took her need to God in Supplication: “She continued praying before the LORD” (1 Sam 1:12).
You, too, must take your need to God in Supplication. “You do not have, because you do not ask” (Js 4:2). In the context of James 4, the people had some needs—in fact, they were murdering and coveting because they did not have. All they needed to do to get what they needed was to pray.
Don’t be like them. Take your needs to God in prayer: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Phil 4:6). How much do you go to God in Supplication?
Three: Stay
After you take your requests to God in prayer, you must Stay and wait on God’s timing for your answer. Hannah needed to Stay: “And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son” (1 Sam 1:20). Hannah didn’t conceive immediately, but she did conceive “in due time.”
Instead of an immediate answer to your prayer, you may need to Stay: “I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry” (Ps 40:1).
As you Stay patiently for your answer, God may refuse your request because it doesn’t fit with his divine will. David “sought God on behalf of the child” (2 Sam 12:16) born from his sin with Bathsheba, but the child still died (2 Sam 12:18). Paul prayed three times for his thorn in the flesh to be removed (2 Cor 12:8), but the Lord promised grace and power (2 Cor 12:9). And Jesus himself went to the Garden and pleaded with his Father to take the cross from him (cf. Matt 26:36-46), yet he still died.
As you Stay, know that God’s will is perfect: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Rom 11:33). Even when God refuses to answer prayer as you wish, his will is perfect and overflowing with wisdom.
The question this morning isn’t whether or not God has refused your request; the question is whether or not you have refused his requests. Are you doing God’s will? Have you told God no? Do you need to come and do God’s will this morning as we stand and sing?
This sermon was originally preached by Dr. Justin Imel, Sr., at Church of Christ Deer Park in Deer Park, Texas.