Nobody except you fully knows the sorrows in your own life, but if God has made you cry like Hannah then I hope you find comfort in the promises of this chapter. I hope it helps you trust that God’s delays today are a sign that he has something far better in store for you tomorrow.
I hope you notice that the writer doesn’t bother to name Peninnah’s sons and daughters or the five children who were born to Hannah after she handed over Samuel in 2:21. Those children born out of ease and comfort had not been prayed for and blessed through the Lord making their mother cry.
They were not like Samuel, who would become the greatest judge of Israel, the deliverer of God’s people, the Lord’s prophet, and the kingmaker who would transition Israel from a loose confederation of tribes led by judges into a centralized monarchy.
I hope this chapter helps you understand that God has made you cry because your tears are watering the earth of your life to produce a harvest of grace beyond your wildest dreams. After all, if God is big enough for you to blame in your troubles, then he is also big enough for you to trust him in the midst of them, too.
If God grants you encouragement through this chapter, then follow Hannah’s lead in verse 18 when she responds to Eli’s blessing with faith and joy. Although nothing has changed visibly and she has only the word of God’s priest to suggest that her prayer has been heard at all,10 she dries her eyes and breaks her fast and starts worshipping the Lord.
As you worship alongside her, you will become the kind of person God can use.
