Heartbroken Prayer That Breeds Results

TROUBLE COMES

1 Samuel 1:10 first tells us that Hannah was deeply distressed. Other translations describe her as having bitterness of soul, being greatly distressed, crushed in soul, and in deep anguish. This could be described further as being in a mental state of great, intense distress. It is a figurative extension of a bitter taste in the mouth. When I think of a bitter taste in the mouth, I think of the taste in your mouth after you throw up. You can’t just wait to rinse out your mouth to make the taste go away!

We all have been at places where we have been crushed in our soul or in a deep dark state of being anguished. Jesus was there. In the garden, knowing what He was facing on the night before His death, He begged the Father to not make Him go through it. He was in such a deep state of anguish that He sweat drops of blood! Jonah was in that place. Rather than obey God’s command to to preach to Ninevah in the east, he payed to flee to the east. Then he was swallowed up by a whale and was near death when he finally prayed to God.

All of us come to times in our lives when we are utterly distraught. Living becomes unbearable. The weight of the situation we face is so heavy. It is so big that we feel like little David in front of a 9 foot giant. We may feel like we just want to escape. We have those “Calgon” moments; you know, “Calgon take me away.” Our first response is probably to run to escape, but God calls us to draw near to Him in these moments. Peter tells us to “cast all your cares on Him, because He cares for you.”

GO TO GOD FIRST

Hannah was faced with a very troubling situation when she couldn’t have a child. We would do well to follow her example. She went to God first.

God can do more in a moment of believing prayer than we can accomplish in our entire lifetime of striving in human effort. Faith is believing God exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

Many times when we are faced with troubles in our lives, we immediately start thinking how we can solve those troubles. We start to formulate a plan and put it into execution. We start searching Google for advice, solutions, and plans. We ask our friends what we should do. We might even seek out professional advice. We do all these things, but we don’t go to God first.

In Hannah’s time, there weren’t mental health counselors to help her with the deep anguish that she felt. There weren’t any fertility experts to help her get pregnant. She had to go to God first. I am not saying that counselors and doctors don’t have their place. They are wonderful resources to help us through our trials. But when we speed off to them first, our priorities are out of order.

God said, “You shall have no other Gods before me.” Jesus said to seek out the kingdom of God first. The writer of Hebrews instructed us to always fix our eyes on Jesus. When we run into problems, God wants us to come to Him first. When we go to Him first and seek out the counsel of the Holy One, we are started on a path that leads to peace, serenity, wisdom, and assurance. There is no better place to start. There is no better place to go.

When we are faced with stresses and anxieties that cause us to be deeply distressed and crushed in our soul, we must follow the example of Hannah, and go to God first.

ANOINT YOUR PRAYERS WITH TEARS

We are told that when Hannah was praying to God for a son, she wept bitterly, she cried inconsolably, and she wept sore. She sobbed. She wailed. She had crocodile tears well up in her eyes. The word for wept means that she could have had mild convulsions or spasms of her diaphragm. This would have caused vocal sounds of soft groaning or loud wailing.

When we are in the thick of it, how often do we anoint our prayers with tears? How often are we so broken in heart and torn apart in spirit that we spill crocodile tears?

We see that Hannah was so distressed that her visual actions were such that the priest thought her to be drunk. Her lips were moving, but no words came out of her. She didn’t know how to pray. It is in times like these that our prayers have a way of becoming short and to the point. “God help.” We probably say this over and over again because we just don’t know what else to say. Today, we have this promise. “Now in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:26-27).