Have you ever had a time where, whether it is a promise or a heart’s desire, you have gone all out and spent every last bit of yourself on pursuing and taking hold of it?
I think about how these times can be like Hannah and how crazy we can look to others who are watching on. We can be totally misunderstood and perhaps even condemned for our behaviour (like Hannah was) from those on the outside.
We can also be questioned about our contentment by those on the inside (like Hannah was).
If we are not careful enough to listen (and respond) through filters of the Holy Spirit- who is constantly honouring and loving – then we may get stuck in places we don’t need to be.
For me, if I had Eli telling me off for being drunk, when I’m fact I was heartsick and desperate, I’d be fuming and respond with self defensive and angry words. Hannah shows us an incredible humility to filter the offence and goes straight to the matter humbly sharing her heart!
And if my husband wasn’t understanding my heart’s desire and would use manipulation to try and disturb my contentment with him, I would weaken into depression and give up the fight. But Hannah shows us her non-engagement of communication that goes nowhere, and persists in moving forward to take hold what God had put in her heart.
Even within ourselves, maybe depending on how long we have been pursuing, we have become another voice that we need to filter. “it’s been too long now” etc etc..
How many times, do we want something so bad that we make deals with God? Hannah made a deal- that if she was given a child, she would offer him back to God. What an incredible, and possibly heart-breaking, fulfilment was that?! A pain of another kind, on the other side of the promise.
Let us not be naive when it comes to promises and heart’s desires: their process, their delivery/arrival, and their outworking. In every season there is a cost. And there is heart. And there is continual need for filters.
But let’s also never give up and settle for less than what is available to and for us.
It is never just about us. It is about the next generation, the future destinies of kings and queen’s, about cities, families, workplaces.
Let us live and worship to have our names in the lineage of sons and daughters (beyond blood) who bring the Kingdom of God to this earth when we are long gone..
ponderments 