Hannah is very aware that the conception and birth of her son is a gift from God. She comes good on her promise to dedicate Samuel to the LORD’s service at the house of the LORD. And somehow, rather than agonising over having to part with her son at such a young age, Hannah is able to rejoice in her circumstances as the redemptive work of God. She sees her own situation as a picture of what God is doing through the bigger story of her people - bringing down arrogant humanity and lifting up those who seem weak but trust in him. She sees in her circumstances a picture of God’s character and good purposes at work - she sees the hope of humanity.

And despite the various differences between us and Hannah, it is a wonderful example of turning from the circumstances themselves (which have made her feel so #blessed!) and to praise God for who he is and to consider how it points to God’s bigger plans to ‘lift up the needy from the ash heap’. When good things happen to us, even in answer to desperate prayer, we are tempted to revel in the pleasure of the ’thing’ itself rather than revel in the giver of the thing and his good plans for all of God’s world. Of course, it was made easier to do this given her prayer and promise focused on God’s plans for his people in the first place. Hannah had just handed over her son to the service of God when she sung this hymn of praise. She saw that God’s answer to her prayer was not just for her pleasure, but for the sake of his good plans. Let’s be praying for things that we are convinced are part of God’s good plans for this world, and turn to God in praise for what he’s doing and will do when we see him answering these prayers.

2 Comments | Add Your Comment

Kristi Sankar 2 Apr, 2020

How do we draw the line between “this is a good thing so I will pray for it” and “Lord let your will be done”?
Matt Kennedy 7 Apr, 2020

Good question! I think we see the ultimate example of that in Jesus' prayer in the garden of Gesthemane. Jesus asks plainly and simply for the good thing that he wants, whilst also expressing his ultimate desire for his Father to do what is good and necessary in his eyes. I think we can pray in a similar way, asking God simply and boldly for what we think is best, but acknowledging that God knows better and we will submit to his will.
The other aspect of this is how we respond to what God does. We might pray for something that is good (a job, a partner, a child, a family member's health), and tell ourselves that we ultimately want God's will to be done. But if God doesn't do what we ask and we then react in anger and resentment, it reveals that we weren't quite all the way there with 'let your will be done.'
In the end it's not drawing a line between them, but holding them both together.