1 Samuel 1:21-28 – "For this child I prayed"
Introduction:
• In the last session, we saw Hannah bring her pain to God.
• This time, we see that God remembers Hannah’s prayer. But what happens after the
answer? Hannah’s response teaches us something powerful about faith.
• And how do we feel when we don’t get what we w
Main Teaching:
• V 21-28 When her husband Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the
annual sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfill his vow, 22 Hannah did not go. She said
to her husband, “After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before
the Lord, and he will live there always.”[c] “Do what seems best to you,” her
husband Elkanah told her. “Stay here until you have weaned him; only may
the Lord make good his[d] word.” So the woman stayed at home and nursed her
son until she had weaned him. After he was weaned, she took the boy with her,
young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull,[e] an ephah[f] of flour and a skin
of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. 25 When the bull had
been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli, 26 and she said to him, “Pardon me,
my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you
praying to the Lord.
27 I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I
asked of him. 28 So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given
over to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.
• God “Remembered” Hannah - Not that He forgot, but He acted in His perfect
time.
• Easy to think that maybe Hannah was happy because she got what she wanted. To
compare her after with our present. But we saw last time that Hannah had peace before
she was pregnant
• Faith Isn’t Just About Receiving - It’s About Surrender
• Hannah made a vow before God, and she kept it - She understood that God is the true
giver of all gifts.
• Isaiah 54:1 - “Sing, barren woman,
you who never bore a child;
burst into song, shout for joy,
you who were never in labor;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband,”
says the Lord.
• God’s faithfulness isn’t always how we expect—but He always provides.
• I often find the questions “do you have a family difficult” as it means “do you have kids”
most of the time and on one hand I have none.
• On the other I have at least 20! How is this true? I have an incredible church family
where I have the privilege of helping babies learn to crawl, pushing toddlers on swings,
doing reading homework with the primary kids, talking about boys and dating with the
secondary girls, praying for teenagers off at uni and so much more. These are my
children in so many ways.
• Am I a mother? No – but I am blessed to be able to love and mother so many kids.
Conclusion:
• Hannah received her heart’s desire, but her deepest joy was in God Himself.
• It seems easy for Hannah to have joy – but her joy came from God not from her son.
Discussion Questions:
1. What does it mean that God remembered Hannah?
2. How does Hannah’s response challenge our view of answered prayer?
3. How can we learn to surrender our greatest gifts to God?
