You see how the bumper is kind of, it captures where we’ve been, where we are at, and where we’re going. We’re in this series called Timeless Call. It’s God’s timeless call, and we’re taking a, a, a scan of the Old Testament, major people and events for God’s people that shows God’s timeless call, not just to them, But for us today, and today, we’re going to be looking at a woman named Hannah and her prayer life and what God might be saying to us in his timeless call to us about prayer today. Have you ever found yourself in a tough spot and you find yourself tempted to kind of like a deal making prayer with God? Do you know what I’m talking about? Um, if you do, you’re not alone. The unintentional founder of the Lutheran church, Martin Luther, had his own bargain prayer. Um, word is Martin Luther, when he was a, an aspiring attorney, uh, he was caught in a A big bad thunder and lightning storm, and when a big bolt of lightning hit real close to him, he, he prayed out to his patron saint, Anne, he goes, Help me Saint Anne, and I will become a monk. Well, he wasn’t destroyed, he was saved, and true to his word, he withdrew himself then from law school, and joined an Augustinian monastery as a monk in Erfurt. And of course the rest, as they say, is history. So have you ever found yourself praying one of those bargaining prayers with God? Lord, if you just get me out of this situation, I’ll go to church every week.

Lord, if you’ll just give me a healthy diagnosis, I promise, I’ll give in the offering every week at church. Whatever it might be. It’s kind of amazing the vows that we can make. especially when we’re under pressure, seeking divine help that comes out of, really, some desperate times. So today we’re going to delve into Hannah’s story, and we’re going to look at her heartfelt prayers, two of them, to the Lord. And through her story, I hope that we’ll discover that God invites us today to bring our needs to Him in prayer, but then to submit our own agendas and wills to His and also cultivate a heart of thanksgiving and of gratitude that can transform not just your prayers, but your faith. So, uh, if you have your Bibles or devices, turn with me to 1 Samuel, chapter 1. It’ll be up on the screen as well. And we begin, uh, with chapter 1 of 1 Samuel, verse 1. There was a certain man from Ramathain, his, whose name was Elkanah. He had two wives. One was called Hannah, and And the other, Panina. Panina had children, but Hannah had none. And here’s where the plot thickens. Year after year, this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord at Shiloh. Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of meat to his wife, Panana, and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah, he gave a double portion, because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb. Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her.

This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. Her husband Elkanah would say to her, Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downcast? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons? Once, when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s house. In her deep anguish, Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. And she made a vow, saying, Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me. And do not forget your servants. But give her a son. Then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life. And no razor will ever be used on his head. As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine. Not soul, my Lord, Hannah replied. I’m a woman who’s deeply troubled. I’ve not been drinking wine or beer. I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman. I’ve been praying here out of my great anguish and grief. Eli answered, go in peace and may the Lord God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.

She said, may your servant find favor in your eyes. Then she went her way and ate something. And her face was no longer downcast. Early the next morning, she arose and worshipped before the Lord, and then went home, back to their home in Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. So in the course of time, Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, Because I asked the Lord for him. This is the word of the Lord. Let’s pray as we continue. Father in heaven, we come now. To you and, uh, in the name of Jesus. And we ask that you would send the Holy Spirit. That your word be alive and working in our own hearts. Drawing us closer to you. Even through prayer. I ask in Jesus name. Dear friends, grace to you and peace. From God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Can you see that picture? A woman in ancient Israel standing alone in the temple. Her heart heavy with sorrow and her spirit crushed by unmet desires and provocation. And in her desperation, she makes the solemn vow to God. If he grants her a son, she will dedicate him entirely. This is Hannah, a woman so overwhelmed by pain that she felt compelled to make a binding promise to God. And so, I believe we start where Hannah did, in God’s timeless call to pray out of our need. She did, and that’s God’s invitation to us. It’s okay to pray out of a desperate situation.

Hannah did it. Her situation, it was dire. She was barren. A condition that brought immense personal anguish, compounded by a rival who kept, um, tormenting her year after year. Because her rival had children, and she didn’t. And in that culture, not having children was a huge social stigma. As well as a familiar, familial challenge. Her ability to conceive, it was not just a personal struggle either, but a source of public shame and certainly family disappointment and deep frustration. And so in her pain, Hannah turns to God with a fervent prayer that lays bare her deepest need. Where do you go? Or to whom do you turn? In your time of great need. The Bible makes this phenomenal promise in Psalm chapter 34. The Lord is near to the broken hearted and saves the crushed in spirit. God consistently invites us to bring our needs to him for he is gracious and compassionate. Whether we’re facing emotional distress or physical challenges, financial struggles, relational conflicts. God welcomes our cry to help. So don’t hold back. Jesus makes this invitation in Matthew 11. Come to me all who labor and are, who are, who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And the Bible presents this invitation to us to not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, Present your requests to God.

It’s like a, God’s like a lifeguard on a beach. You know, lifeguard watching over a group of people swimming, especially if the ocean is kind of churned up and turbulent. If a swimmer gets caught, say, in a riptide, I mean, the swimmer’s immediate response is to cry out for help. May that be our response when life gets hard and challenging. Our instinct should be to reach out to God knowing that He is always attentive and He’s ready to rescue us from our distress. The Bible makes this promise in Hebrews 4. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. Just as Hannah sought God in her time of need, we too, we’re encouraged to bring our burdens, our fears, our desires to God. And this actually involves recognizing our dependence on God. It’s a good step, trusting in His compassionate nature. And in this way, prayer becomes our lifeline, a direct connection of communion with the one who cares deeply about every aspect of your life. So yes, pray out of your need, but also pray according to God’s promises. Hannah didn’t merely just present her plea for a child. She made a vow pledging that if God granted her request, she would dedicate her son to his service. In other words, she expressed her need, but she was even willing to let that go as an offering to God. I mean, this act, it demonstrates her profound trust in God’s promises and in his sovereign plan. For Hannah’s prayer was not just about receiving what she wanted. But about aligning her desires with God’s will the Bible says in Proverbs 3 trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding And in many ways our prayers reveal the dynamics of our faith in God our prayers Are they about God you got a line your will with ours?

Or are we going to pray as we do in the Lord’s Prayer? Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Or as Jesus himself prayed, Lord, if it’s possible, take this cup from me. Yet, not as I will, but as you will. Our prayers can reflect a deep trust in God’s promises. But it means submitting our personal agendas and, and desires to His greater plan, knowing that His ways and His timing are perfect, not ours. But I think it’s easy to approach prayer kind of like we do a vending machine, okay? So, you guys are probably wondering, what is this gumball machine doing here? Well, first of all, This is a beautiful baby. It’s a vintage one. It takes pennies or nickels, okay? That’s how old it is. And I think it’s tempting for me, I think for many of us, to approach prayer like a vending machine. We get to take our coin, drop it in, turn the crank, we expect to get what we want, and voila! There it is! Peanut M& M’s! Maybe that’s a way to get you to pray more, give you some M& M’s every time you pray. But here’s, there’s kind of a catch to this. Because one of two things can happen if you approach God like a vending machine. If He gives you what you want, you may miss the point and start becoming more selfish and demanding in your prayer life. Or, if God doesn’t give you what you want, I mean, you don’t have to raise your hands, but how many of you have put money in a vending machine and it doesn’t deliver? Go What do you do?

Look around, shake it, hit it, try not to break it. And we get frustrated. And if we approach God like a vending machine and He doesn’t give us what we want, it can, we can become resentful. And if you let that become a permanent state, you start to even doubt. Neither approach is good for our own souls or our faith. The Bible shows us how to approach prayer in regards to our own wants and needs. Amen. In Psalm 37 verse 4, it says, Delight yourself in the Lord, and He’ll give you the desires of your heart. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He’ll give you the desires of your heart. Don’t you love that? I love that verse. I memorized it back in my teenage years. Because, hey! He’ll give you the desires of your heart. There’s a key catch that I never caught till later in my life. And that’s this, to delight yourself in the Lord. And he’ll give you the desires of your heart. What does that mean? I believe it means that as we delight in God, we abide in his word. His spirit works transformation within us. Our desires become in alignment with his. And when our desires are part of our prayers, as they are aligned with God’s will. Yes, he’s gonna give you what you want because you will want what God wants and in his timing, but friends, that that requires a submission of our own wills and agendas to God. When we pray according to God’s promises, we are expressing our faith in his character. We just did this in our liturgy when we said, you know, help us to, um, walk, uh, to basically love your will and walk in your ways. That’s what we’re praying, that our prayers become in alignment with God’s will. This will involve patience.

It’ll require humility and a humbleness and a willingness to surrender our will to His. And yet this alignment, it can foster an ongoing deepening relationship with God as we learn to depend on His wisdom rather than our own limited understanding. And now for our third point, I’m going to invite Billie to come on up and she’s going to read the second prayer for you. There are two prayers that we’re looking at. I just looked at the first one in chapter one. Hannah prays a second prayer. After God had answered her prayer, it’s a prayer of thanksgiving. That demonstrates the third point, to pray from a heart of thanksgiving. Of Thanksgiving and gratitude after God answered Hannah’s prayer by granting her a son. Listen to Hannah’s response and the depth of her faith, and half pray and said my heart, Jewish, the Lord, inner Lord, by pour high my mouth. There is no one. There is no wrong like our God do not copies happening or that your mouth such ance for the Lord is a God who, his deed, but the both of the Lord, but those constrained those who are full, those who. She who was barren has borne seven children. But she who has many sons climbs the way. Then the Lord brings death and makes alive. He brings down the grave and raises up. The Lord sends poverty and wealth. He comes and makes us. He raises the poor from the dust. And lifts the needy from the ashen. He saves themselves. And has inherit a throne where the foundations of the are the Lord on that. He has the he guard feet, but the ED will be silenced in the place of prevail. Wow.

I want to learn to pray like Hannah prays. Isn’t that something? Does that reflect the depth and spiritual maturity of your own prayers? Hannah’s prayer in 1 Samuel 2, and I invite you to read it sometime this week. It’s a beautiful hymn of praise. It celebrates God’s sovereignty, rests on His justice, and banks on His mercy. For Hannah, this first and second prayer, there’s a shift from a desperate plea to an exuberant thanksgiving. And it highlights what I believe can be the transformative power of gratitude. In our own prayer life. We are given this invitation in 1st Thessalonians. Give thanks in all circumstances For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you You know if you study in 2nd Samuel, 1st Samuel 2, that second prayer of Hannah’s I think you she could have prayed that same prayer even if God had answered no to her request for a son I think that’s the level of spiritual maturity that Hannah reveals in her prayer. And I would like to pray like Hannah so that my faith would be like Hannah’s. Don’t you? So let your prayers be laced throughout with thanksgiving. You know, for Hannah, my wife asked me, because she got to read the passage at the first service, did you catch the part about seven sons, seven children? She said, well, did Hannah have seven kids? Well, I looked it up, she had six. So after Samuel, whom she gave up to the Lord’s service, she had three more boys and two girls. And so the Lord kept answering above and beyond her prayer. But he did answer her prayer, and then she responds with that prayer of thanksgiving. It’s amazing. And for us today, I believe genuine thanksgiving in our prayers can transform our perspective and deepen our faith in God. It shifts our focus from what we lack to what God has promised and provides. And it deepens our relationship with God that fosters a spirit even of contentment and joy. Think of a garden and how plants there just thrive when nourished with sunlight. I think so too, our spirits can flourish when nourished with gratitude. Regularly expressing thanks to God, it’s like watering the seeds of our faith and allowing God to grow them and to bear fruit. Remember the verse that’s written above the main entrance to victory? Let it shape your attitude every time you enter here. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and it continues, and his courts with praise.

Give thanks to him, bless his name. Hannah’s prayer teaches us to acknowledge God’s greatness, and to express our thankfulness regardless of our circumstance. And that attitude of gratitude, it not only honors God, but it can strengthen our faith, reminding us of God’s faithfulness. and his ongoing presence, promises, and provision. Hannah’s story, it’s a timeless call to deepen our own prayer lives. Hannah’s story is a powerful invitation to an enduring, uh, faithful God. That God extends to us to come to Him in our time of need, to trust in His promises, to align our will with His, and to approach Him with thankful hearts. And as we do, we can experience what Hannah experienced. Her journey from anguish to exaltation. It demonstrates the profound transformation prayer can bring to our own lives. So how do we live this? How do we apply this? Four things, real quick. First, indeed, pray in times of need. Like Hannah, we’re encouraged to pour out our hearts to God, trusting in His care and compassion. Pray, trusting in God’s promises. We can learn to align our desires with His will and learn that He is faithful and that His sovereignty and goodness are always paramount. Third, pray with gratitude. We cultivate a heart of thanksgiving and in doing so we can recognize and celebrate God’s faithfulness in every circumstance and season of our life. So accept God’s timeless invitation to a deeper prayer and as we reflect even on Hannah’s example. Let us commit to deepening our prayer life. So today I invite you to evaluate your prayer life. Are you approaching God with your needs? Are you willing to submit and align your will with His? How about a heart and attitude of thanksgiving? Does that permeate your prayers? I think we can seek to even deepen our relationship with God through consistent and heartfelt prayer, just as Hannah did. Whether in desperation, or in faith, or in gratitude. May our prayers reflect a continual reliance upon our loving and faithful God. Join me in prayer. Father in heaven, thank you for inviting us into a deeper relationship with you through prayer. Help us to come to you with our needs, to trust in your promises and to cultivate hearts of gratitude. Strengthen our faith and guide us to seek you earnestly in every circumstance or season of our life and transform our prayer lives that we may grow closer to you and then reflect your love and faithfulness to a watching world. I ask in Jesus precious name, Amen.