God's Tapestry

She desperately wanted to have a child. And to make matters worse, her rival, who had many children, "provoked her year after year in order to irritate her" (1 Samuel 1:5). So great was her longing that she wept much and prayed to the Lord. Why, she probably asked, did God not answer the cry of her heart? God in His timing did answer Hannah's prayer. As a matter of fact, He answered it in a much greater way than she probably ever dreamed. Her son Samuel became God's instrument in His marvelous plan of redemption.

Over and over again I'm reminded that my vantage point is so limited. We want what we want when we want it. From our limited view, we think that the best thing is to have our prayers answered immediately. We become distressed when a month passes with no answer and can begin to feel hopeless when years go by without change. It may be that we too long for a child, for a better job for our husband, to move into a bigger house, for a child to give his/her heart to the Savior, for a loved one to be healed…

Looking back, I remember those times when I prayed that we would get a specific house only to find that our offer was not accepted. I've prayed that my husband would get a promising job, yet he was passed over. I've prayed for a child to be healed, but she was not. Looking back, I can see that God had better plans for me – but how difficult it was to trust God in the midst of the longing.
The story of Hannah's life encourages me in several ways. Through the wait, God increased Hannah's pursuit of God. Out of desperation, Hannah pressed relentlessly into God. And as she did, He changed her heart. Each time God puts a longing in my heart, it causes me to press into Him. As I think of a current longing that I am facing, Hannah's story infuses me with faith. I've been praying for a certain situation for years, and I can tend to become discouraged. But, the Lord has kept me from losing faith; He's kept me pressing into Him. He draws my heart to Him each day as I pray that my heart's desire would be answered.

Through the story of Hannah's life I'm helped to see my circumstance through the lens of faith. There's much more at stake than the immediate answer to my prayer. God is weaving my longings and the cry of my heart into the tapestry of His purposes for something greater than I can even dream of. As I daily cry out to God to answer this longing, I have great hope that not only will He someday answer, but that His answer will come at a time and in a way that will bring the most glory to His name. He will use my prayers that He caused me to pray to bring about a greater purpose than I ever dreamed. Not only will He answer in His perfect way and in His perfect time, he's using this circumstance to change me, to grow my faith and to help me to rest in Him.

I'm sure that Hannah had no idea that God wanted to use her yet-to-be conceived son to change the course of Israel's history. But God gave her those strong desires so that she would persistently cry out to Him and dedicate her son to His service. Be encouraged that God can see the whole picture. We see only a tiny piece, but we can rest in the fact that God has bigger things in mind for us than we can ask or imagine.