Welcome to Week 7 of MATRIARCHS!
Study God’s Word with us online or use them in your small group or Sunday School class!
Each lesson includes:
- Teaching video every Monday (15-20 minutes)
- Short lesson provided as the content of the post
- In-depth downloadable PDF to deepen your study
- Worksheets that take you even deeper
ALL LESSONS ARE FREE AND YOU CAN MAKE AS MANY COPIES AS YOU’D LIKE!
Week 1: Eve – A Mother Like No Other
Week 2: Sarah – Mother of Nations
Week 3: Rebekah – Mothering Through Barrenness
Week 4: Mary – Stubbornly Inflexible or Sacredly Flexible
Week 5: Naomi – Not Forsaken
Week 6: Jochebed – Desperate Times, Desperate Measures
HANNAH – What to Do When God Is Silent
Below is the video lesson guide. Please click on the PLEASE DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE IN-DEPTH BIBLE STUDY OF HANNAH link which takes you to the next level and helps you gain a more extensive and life-changing understanding of God’s Word. There is also a link to the YouTube video link to study and hear details of Jochebed’s story. It is a story that many women can relate to.)
Silence. As moms we know that even a few precious minutes of quiet in the midst of our daily activities and responsibilities can be a gift to our very sanity!
But every mom knows that silence can sometimes mean trouble. An unattended, silent child can quickly be found decorating a living room wall with permanent marker, pulling every can and box from the kitchen pantry or creating some other palm-to-our-forehead disaster!
It’s often much more difficult to remember that things are happening when God is silent. I can imagine that was how Hannah must have felt at times.
Hannah desperately wanted children, but could not get pregnant. Most of us can relate to the ache of an unfulfilled heart desire. Like Hannah, we can become consumed by our pain. We fight bitterness, anger, despair and discouragement as we suffer in the silence of a God who seems detached from our misery.
Here are a few life-changing lessons we can learn from Hannah when our pleas seem to be met with silence:
She honored God.
Every year, Hannah went to the Tabernacle with her husband and his second wife, Peninnah. The purpose was to worship and sacrifice to God. On the journey, Peninnah would taunt and make fun of Hannah because she could not have children. Peninnah’s cruelty made her wound even more painful. This annual trip distressed Hannah so much that she was unable to even eat.
She could have refused to go. Instead, Hannah chose to make this heartwrenching trip, year after year. She chose — as an act of the will — to worship and honor God in the midst of her pain.
She took her pain to God.
1 Samuel 1:10 tells us, Hannah was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord. Over and over again in the book of Psalms, David also poured out his heart to God. He laid his soul bare. Jesus prayed this way in the Garden of Gethsemane.
God welcomes our passionate, honest, heartfelt prayers. In fact, He invites them: “Throw all your anxiety upon him, because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7
She found peace when she released her burden.
One year, when Hannah went to the Tabernacle to pray, she did something different. And it changed everything. Hannah finally, truly left her burden with the Lord. The Matthew Henry Commentary of the Whole Bible says it this way: “She had by prayer committed her case to God and left it with him, and now she was no more perplexed about it. She had prayed for herself, and Eli had prayed for her; and she believed that God would either give her the mercy she had prayed for or make up the want of it to her some other way.”
She recognized Samuel was His before he was hers.
In her prayer at the Tabernacle, Hannah made a vow to God: “… if you will look upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you. He will be yours for his entire lifetime …” 1 Samuel 1:11
Was Hannah making a bargain with God? I don’t think so. She was telling God that if he blessed her with a son, she would dedicate her son’s life to Him and raise him up in such a way that he would be prepared for devoted service to God.
God worked through Hannah’s pain to give birth to things — peace, trust in Him, humility, gratefulness. He transformed her heart and mind — whether He ultimately answered her prayer for a child or not.
I don’t understand why God doesn’t always answer our prayers. Here’s what I do know: He is always working in our situation. He cares about every external detail of our lives, but He doesn’t stop there. He desires our internal transformation much more. He wants for us to find peace and contentment that is dependent on our hope and strength in Him, not on our circumstances.
Seek Him instead of an answer. In time, you will find both. The answer may not always be the one you’d hoped for, but through the process, He will change you. I promise.
If this lesson has spoken to your heart… if God has used it, please be sure to leave a comment and please share on your social media outlets using the hashtag #MATRIARCHS
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- Heaviness and Newness - December 23, 2016
