Women of the Bible - Hannah

Our church is beginning a series of sermons on 1 Samuel. This week we started with the story of Hannah (You can find it in 1 Samuel 1, 2:1-11). I love the story of Hannah, she has always been one of my favourite women in the Bible. I think maybe it's the empathy of such a deep longing, or the awe of such devotion as to give up her child to God.

What I especially love about Hannah is that she isn't afraid to pray, about both the good and the bad. In the sermon, and also Bible study we centred in on her prayers.

- Hannah doesn't hold back, but 'was pouring out [her] soul to the LORD.' How easy it is for us to pretend, even when we pray. God knows whats on our heart, he also wants us to admit it to him.

- Hannah is not ashamed of her longing for children and talks to God about it. (While she doesn't deal with her longing the best way at the beginning, by taking it to God she takes steps to accepting Gods will)

- After Hannah had prayed 'her face was no longer downcast'. This was before she knew how God was going to answer her prayer. Talking to God, and knowing He is in control helps us have peace that is beyond reason or understanding.

- After having Samuel, Hannah praises God for who he is, not just for what he has done for her. 'There is no one holy like the LORD', 'the LORD will judge the ends of the earth'. When I pray to thank God I'm still rather self-centered in my prayer and pray mainly about my blessing. Instead Hannah uses her prayer to glorify God and remind others of His goodness in all things, not just in his blessing of her.

- Hannah's story reminds us that not only is God powerful, but he is also personal. He does care about each one of us indervidually. He is concerned with all aspects of our lives.

- Hannah reminds us to turn to God in all circumstance. When we are in the depths of despair or full of joy; pray to Him!

(image credit)

Couples at risk

In my Families and Community class we were going through the factors which place a couple at higher risk of getting a divorce within the first 5 years of marriage. A few things were obvious; abuse, extreme poverty, lack of family support. Then there was one which I wasn’t expecting;

Living together before marriage.

I had heard these statistics before, but it was amazing to hear this at a public university course – and to have it backed up with research.

God's way really is best.

(photo from sxc)

Do I love it?

At church we were having a discussion about the idea of justification by faith alone, and thinking about times when it is implied that this isn't true. Someone mentioned that sometimes they felt that people say that to be saved we have to read the Bible everyday and if we don't then we arn't really a Christian. (This is one way of looking at it, of course someone who is a Christian should spend time in Gods word, and we should still even if we don't feel like it)

In answer to this Paul (one of our elders) said something really cool - I'll try and remember how he said it.

"We often turn good things that God gives us into obligations. If you don't read the Bible for a few days don't think that God is up in heaven angry and condemning us to hell, rather we have missed a wonderful opportunity to grow in our faith. Same with praying, if we don't do it we are actually denying ourselves the privilege of communicating with our God."



It was a way of looking at it that I hadn't thought about before. Before when I miss my quite times I beat myself up by saying things like "What kind of Christian are you? God must really hate me now." and then make myself do double what I normally do to make up for it.


When in fact God doesn't want me to spend time with him because I feel forced to, dragging my feet and hanging my head.

He wants me to love spending time with Him, He wants me to delight in what he is teaching me and to want to talk with Him.

photo courtesy of the bbp

Resist the Devil

So often we are told to stop sinning, to change the way we act and follow Gods way.

How do we do that? Can we just decide to 'resist the devil' and that's it?

God knows we can't do it on our own - instead of just saying to resist the devil he says;

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. James 4:7-8

It is only by drawing near to God that we can be changed. It is only by spending time with Him, reading his word and talking with Him that we can become renewed. God doesn't expect us to do it on our own.

So when you feel tempted, instead of spending all your energy focused on resisting the temptation, instead draw near to God, He will draw near to you and you will be able to become more like Him.