“Like a Girl”
Pray Like A Girl
I. Introduction
For those of you last who were out last week I started a new series called “Like a Girl!” I challenged us to reevaluate what most of us have thought of as an insult for years when I challenged you to “Fight Like a Girl!”
Not some hands flailing in the air, no contact made type of fight. I challenged you to fight with prophetic insight and timing. I also encouraged you to add God back into the equation of your life! I hope you have been fighting like a girl all week.
Today I want to challenge you to do something else like a girl. This one doesn’t seem to be as big a leap in logic as fighting like a girl because most of us have always seen the women of the church as the prayer warriors. Most of the time it is the little old ladies of the church that really know how to pray! Where are the men that know how to pray? Maybe we need to learn to “Pray Like a Girl!”
II. Text
1 Samuel 1:1-19
1-2There once was a man who lived in Ramathaim. He was descended from the old Zuph family in the Ephraim hills. His name was Elkanah. (He was connected with the Zuphs from Ephraim through his father Jeroham, his grandfather Elihu, and his great-grandfather Tohu.) He had two wives. The first was Hannah; the second was Peninnah. Peninnah had children; Hannah did not.
3-7 Every year this man went from his hometown up to Shiloh to worship and offer a sacrifice to GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies. Eli and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, served as the priests of GOD there. When Elkanah sacrificed, he passed helpings from the sacrificial meal around to his wife Peninnah and all her children, but he always gave an especially generous helping to Hannah because he loved her so much, and because GOD had not given her children. But her rival wife taunted her cruelly, rubbing it in and never letting her forget that GOD had not given her children. This went on year after year. Every time she went to the sanctuary of GOD she could expect to be taunted. Hannah was reduced to tears and had no appetite.
8 Her husband Elkanah said, "Oh, Hannah, why are you crying? Why aren’t you eating? And why are you so upset? Am I not of more worth to you than ten sons?"
9-11 So Hannah ate. Then she pulled herself together, slipped away quietly, and entered the sanctuary. The priest Eli was on duty at the entrance to GOD’s Temple in the customary seat. Crushed in soul, Hannah prayed to GOD and cried and cried—inconsolably. Then she made a vow:
Oh, GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies,
If you’ll take a good, hard look at my pain,
If you’ll quit neglecting me and go into action for me
By giving me a son,
I’ll give him completely, unreservedly to you.
I’ll set him apart for a life of holy discipline.
12-14 It so happened that as she continued in prayer before GOD, Eli was watching her closely. Hannah was praying in her heart, silently. Her lips moved, but no sound was heard. Eli jumped to the conclusion that she was drunk. He approached her and said, "You’re drunk! How long do you plan to keep this up? Sober up, woman!"
15-16 Hannah said, "Oh no, sir—please! I’m a woman hard used. I haven’t been drinking. Not a drop of wine or beer. The only thing I’ve been pouring out is my heart, pouring it out to GOD. Don’t for a minute think I’m a bad woman. It’s because I’m so desperately unhappy and in such pain that I’ve stayed here so long."
17 Eli answered her, "Go in peace. And may the God of Israel give you what you have asked of him."
18 "Think well of me—and pray for me!" she said, and went her way. Then she ate heartily, her face radiant.
19 Up before dawn, they worshiped GOD and returned home to Ramah. Elkanah slept with Hannah his wife, and GOD began making the necessary arrangements in response to what she had asked.
III. Girl Lessons
a. Girl prayed about what irritated her.
Didn’t retaliate. Didn’t gossip. Didn’t quit.
Notice if you will that this went on year after year. This was not a onetime thing. It was a constant thing.
I also want you to notice this; her rival provoked her at church.
I know that probably won’t ever happen here, but church folks got under her skin. Church folks brought her to tears. Church folks irritated her. But notice that she didn’t change pews, or avoid her, or sit on the other side of the sanctuary from her, or call the prayer line about her. Instead she prayed like a girl!
What irritates you? Who irritates you? Who gets under your skin? Look around the room is your Peninnah here? What have you done about them? Have you prayed about them or just complained about them, talked about them, avoided them?
I think we have honestly forgotten that prayer actually does change things!
b. Girl prayed persistently.
Hannah went up and prayed year after year. She was persistent in her petition.
Reminds me of how Jesus taught us to pray in the parable found in Luke 18:1-8. He taught us to pray like a girl!
1-3Jesus told them a story showing that it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit. He said, "There was once a judge in some city who never gave God a thought and cared nothing for people. A widow in that city kept after him: ’My rights are being violated. Protect me!’
4-5"He never gave her the time of day. But after this went on and on he said to himself, ’I care nothing what God thinks, even less what people think. But because this widow won’t quit badgering me, I’d better do something and see that she gets justice—otherwise I’m going to end up beaten black-and-blue by her pounding.’"
6-8Then the Master said, "Do you hear what that judge, corrupt as he is, is saying? So what makes you think God won’t step in and work justice for his chosen people, who continue to cry out for help? Won’t he stick up for them? I assure you, he will. He will not drag his feet. But how much of that kind of persistent faith will the Son of Man find on the earth when he returns?"
What have you prayed about persistently? Don’t quit after one prayer. It isn’t that God forgets what we have asked for or that we have to badger Him into meeting our needs. It is just that our persistence reveals commitment and actually reveals faith! How? It shows God that we have faith that He has the ability to meet our need or we would go somewhere else for an answer! Our persistence says, “I trust you to do what needs to be done!”
What have you prayed about persistently? What is your one prayer? What is the one thing that you go back to time and time again? I encourage you to find one prayer that you pray like a girl! Pray persistently.
C. Girl prayed painfully.
This is how Hannah praying was described: she wept much, with bitterness of soul, deeply troubled, poured out soul and with great anguish and grief. Hannah wasn’t praying for fun or to pass the time. She was praying painfully.
Every time you pray, it costs you something. Effective prayer cost Hannah something. What has prayer cost you lately?
But I also want you to see that the type of prayer that this girl prayed not only hurt during the prayer, but after the prayer was answered.
You need to know that prayer often hurts afterwards as well.
She prayed and God gave her a son that she painfully gave back to God.
Too many of us pay the price during prayer, but then balk at the cost that the answer requires. We pray for job, but the answer may mean a lower position, or a change in comfort zone, or starting over on the corporate ladder and we baulk. We pray for revival but the answer may mean turning off the TV, or going to church more than once a week, or cutting off some relationships and we hesitate. We pray for that special relationship, but the answer may mean counseling or saying I’m sorry and we pull up short. Your answer may be painful. It may cost you time. It may cost you pride. It may cost you sacrifice. It may cost you – praying is just the first part of the pain. The pain may just carry over into the answer!
How many of us are willing to do the hard work of praying, but unwilling to deal with the painful answer? How many of us are willing to pay the price in prayer, but unwilling to pay the price to see the prayer answered? Jesus prayed like a girl. His prayer was so painful that he began to sweat blood. But he also understood the pain after prayer and so he dealt with that – nevertheless! Girls pray painfully!
d. Girl prayed from heart.
Notice, it was the heart prayer that got the answer. It wasn’t the eloquent, loud, flashy, awe inspiring prayer. It was the silent, “is this girl nuts or drunk?” prayer that got the results.
I wonder how many of us have a lot of words actually coming out of our mouth and very little out of our heart?
e. Girl grabbed a Word and a Word grabbed her!
When Eli gave her a word Hannah took that as straight from God. High priest was God’s mouthpiece. Notice what happened. Hannah was no longer downcast. She immediately went home and ate heartily, her face radiant. Then she got up and worshipped! She hung tenaciously to the word. You do realize that even though Scripture says she gave birth there was a 9 month process that she had to go through. She allowed that word to grab her!
Some of you need to grab a word. You need to hear a promise from the Father. You need to pray until you get a word that will rearrange your world and meet your needs.
But, some of you need to remember a word and allow that word to grab you! You had a word, but you have allowed what you see with your natural eyes to blind you to the word and what you hear with your natural ears to drown out what you had heard with your spirit ears.
Grab onto the Word again! Believe what has been promised. It may be 9 months before you see the fruit of that Word but don’t give up 2 weeks in. It may be 9 years, don’t give up 8 years in the journey! Grab onto and hold onto the word that you have received and let that word grab you!
Notice, one other thing that is very important. The word that she grabbed and that grabbed her changed her appetite and her countenance. Let that word change your appetites! Let that word change your outlook! Let that word change your countenance. Some of you have received a word, but we can’t tell because your appetites haven’t changed, your outlook on life hasn’t change, and your face hasn’t changed. If you have a word to live on, notify your face!
If it was a word it should produce change! His word is more powerful than a two-edged sword. His word never returns void or falls to the ground. His word speaks things into existence. His word stops the sun. Knocks down walls. Commands raging seas. Multiplies little. Brings death to life. That kind of powerful word should change what you hunger for, how you look and think about life, and how your face looks!
Look at your neighbor and say get a word and change your face!
Have you grabbed a word lately? Have you been grabbed lately?
IV. Close
If you will pray about what irritates you, persistently, you are willing to pay the price during and after the prayer, pray from your heart, and you get a word and a word gets you God will begin to make the necessary arrangements to respond to you!
See that in your mind. God in heaven is up working, shuffling through the supplies, the provision, pulling strings setting things in order to respond to you! Pray like a girl!
You need someone to pray like a girl for you? Come to front.
