Hope in all hopelessness!

Once after a sacrificial meal at Shiloh, Hannah got up and went to pray. Eli the priest was sitting at his customary place beside the entrance of the Tabernacle. Hannah was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord. (1 Samuel 1:10, NLT)

The sad women poured out her anguish and heartbreak in a prayer beyond what her words could possibly convey. Her tears flowed like tiny rivers down her cheeks as nothing could hinder their descent to flooded floor laden with the sorrow of her current circumstances. She had endured years of ridicule from another wife, living in the same household but jealous of the affections that the husband had lavished on this sad and broken woman. Years of sharp and stinging, insulting and lingering words had been layered heavily on her heart about her position as a childless wife in a culture that saw motherhood as the gesture of great blessing in the following of the Living God. All seemed so hopeless.

She seemed to be in such a drunken state that her language sounded like gibberish and was incoherent in meaning. When she explained the deepness of her aching heart, she was given the blessing of the priest who had incorrectly discerned a false sense of her being unholy in a holy place. This woman named Hannah lived to see her childless state completely reversed by the miraculous blessing of the Living God.

How deep is your anguish in the circumstances of your life? How painful are the gossiping, stinging and ridiculing words of those that despise you? How deep is the shame that has been falsely layered upon you? How flooded is the floor from the tears of your sorrow? Is it so deep that your prayers might sound incoherent to anyone that might by chance overhear them?

Hopeless, might be the place where your sorrow and heartbreak seem like your closest friends, just as it was for Hannah so many long years ago. Even in this place of hopelessness, there is a Living God who hears and comes to all in such broken places. Even if the times of anguish have slowly become years, it does not mean your prayers are unheard. It does mean … He will not come to you. Joy is found in His presence, no matter what the circumstances that surround us because we know His steadfast love remains the rock of our faith. There will come a day when He will deliver us from this place. We cannot answer as to the time but we can trust that the Living God will come. This is and will forever be the hope in any and all hopelessness.

Then Hannah prayed: “My heart rejoices in the Lord! The Lord has made me strong. Now I have an answer for my enemies; I rejoice because you rescued me. No one is holy like the Lord! There is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. (1 Samuel 2:1-2, NLT)

Suggested Reading … 1 Samuel 1 & 2