Someone we love is sick. When we heard, we stopped everything to pray.
I remembered that when my husband was driving, alone, over treacherous ice-covered roads, this friend knelt down in his living room, bent his head to the floor, and prayed silently for quite a while. My husband made it to safely to his destination.
Now it’s our turn to pray for this brother of ours.
May God be glorified once again!
He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.
Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
his understanding has no limit.
(Psalm 147:4-5)
Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S Stolovy (SSC/Caltech).
David said, “The Lord is the stronghold of my life. He will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble. I believe I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord (from Psalm 27).”
David prayed: “Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud. Teach me your way. Lead me on a level path. False witnesses have risen up against me (from Psalm 27).”
Speak what’s true about God. And then pray.
I cried out to the Lord. He heard me and opened the heavens. Thick clouds shielded the brightness around him.
He reached down and rescued me because he delights in me (from Psalm 18:6-19).
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior (Habbakuk 3:17-18).
It is as if the writer were actually saying, “Even if I am forced to undergo the extreme condition of not knowing where to find my next meal, and although my house is empty and my fields yield no crops . . . ‘yet I will rejoice in the Lord.'”*
*L.B. Cowman, Streams in the Desert, p.307.
She prayed for a son and God granted her petition. In her next recorded prayer, Hannah “takes little notice of the particular mercy she was now rejoicing in. She overlooks the gift and praises the giver.”*
Here’s some of what Hannah prayed:
There is none holy like the Lord:
There is no rock like our God.
The Lord is a God of knowledge,
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth (from 1 Samuel 2:2-10).
Next time God answers your prayer, praise Him like Hannah did.
*Matthew Henry, The Matthew Henry Commentary, p.283.
In deep anguish, crying bitterly, Hannah poured out her heart to the Lord.
After this time of prayer “She was no longer sad (1 Samuel 1:18).”
Next time you’re in anguish, try praying like Hannah did.
