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Simple Faith: Hannah’s Prayer and the Power of Trusting God (1 Samuel 1 & 2) · (Un) Common thoughts of Christ

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Simple faith, Hannah, and the quiet strength of trust.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: When we come to 1 Samuel 1, the Spirit of God does not begin with a king, or a battle, or a national revival, he begins with a grieving woman.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: That matters, because God often begins his greatest works in secret exercise before him.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Hannah was in deep sorrow, she was barren, she was provoked by Peninnah.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Year by year the wound was reopened, and Scripture says in 1 Samuel 1 7, and as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, so she provoked her, therefore she wept and did not eat.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: What a picture that is.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: This was not a passing disappointment, this was recurring sorrow, a trial renewed again and again.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: And yet this is where simple faith begins to appear.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Hannah could not change her condition, she could not answer her adversary, she could not bring fruit out of barrenness, but she could go to God, and that is exactly what she did.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Scripture says in 1 Samuel 1 10, and she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: That is simple faith, not grand faith, not public faith, not faith making a display of itself, but a soul in bitterness turning to the Lord.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Then in 1 Samuel 111, Hannah says, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man-child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: That prayer is precious because it is not merely desperation, it is dependence.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: She casts herself on the Lord of hosts, she asks him to look, to remember, to act.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Then comes one of the saddest moments in the chapter.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Eli sees Hannah praying, but he misreads her completely.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Verses thirteen to fourteen says, Now, Hannah, she spake in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore Eli thought she had been drunken, and Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Put away thy wine from thee.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: What a solemn thing that is! A spiritual exercise is mistaken for fleshly excess.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: A broken heart before God is misjudged by the priest.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: But Hannah answers in meekness.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: She says in verses fifteen to sixteen, Know, my Lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: That line is beautiful, I have poured out my soul before the Lord.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: That is the very heart of simple faith.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Simple faith tells God everything, it hides nothing, it does not perform, it pours out the soul before the Lord.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Then Eli answers in verse 17, Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And here is one of the loveliest turns in the whole chapter.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Before any visible answer comes, faith lays hold of God.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now verse 18 says, So the woman went her way and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Notice that.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing had outwardly changed yet, the child had not yet been given, the circumstance had not yet shifted.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: But her countenance was changed, because she had truly left the matter with God.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: That is how faith works.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: It is not that faith ignores sorrow, it is that faith brings sorrow into the presence of God.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Peace often comes before the answer does.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then the Lord answers.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 20 continues, Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: But the beauty of Hannah's faith is not only that she received from the Lord, it is that she gave back to the Lord.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: In 1 Samuel 1 27-28, she says, For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: As long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: That is deep faith.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Many rejoice when God answers prayer.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: But Hannah's faith goes farther, she gives the gift back to the giver.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: She wanted what God gave, but she also wanted God to have his rightful place in what he gave.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Then chapter 2 opens with worship.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Hannah says in 1 Samuel 2 1-2, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord, mine horn is exalted in the Lord, my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock like our God.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: That is where simple faith leads, not merely to relief, but to worship, and listen to how her song magnifies the ways of God in Varesis six to eight.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord killeth and maketh alive.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: He bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: He bringeth low and lifteth up.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Hannah had learned something precious.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: The God who humbles is also the God who exalts.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: The God who allows the emptying is also the God who fills.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Her faith was simple because it rested in who God is.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the lesson for us.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Simple faith is not weak faith.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: It is strong because it has stopped leaning on self.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: It is faith that says, I cannot, but he can.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: It is faith that pours out the soul before the Lord.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: It is faith that believes before it sees.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: It is faith that receives peace before the outward answer appears, and it is faith that when the answer comes, lays it at his feet.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Hannah teaches us that a broken heart can still trust, a barren place can still become fruitful, a misunderstood saint can still walk in peace, and a soul in tears can still say, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: That is simple faith, but the story does not end only with Samuel's birth, or Hannah's song, or the peace that came into her heart.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: There is a greater question still.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: One day Hannah will stand before the God she trusted in secret, the God before whom she wept, the God before whom she poured out her soul, the God whom she believed before she saw the answer, the God to whom she gave back the very gift she had longed to receive?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: And what will that God say of such faith?
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: What will be the reward of a woman who trusted him in sorrow, who leaned on him in weakness, and who honored him in her sorrows?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: When Hannah stands before the Lord at his judgment seat, how will the God whom she served reward her simple faith and her quiet trust?