Pray to Pray
In my devotions, I have been going through 1 Samuel with my UWaterloo discipleship group. The first chapter is an inspirational story of this woman named Hannah. It starts with Elkanah who has two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. On one hand, Peninnah is very fruitful and bears a lot of sons. Hannah, on the other hand, is physically unable to bear any children, yet it was evident to Peninnah that Elkanah favors Hannah more. Peninnah, in anger, verbally abuses and bullies Hannah, but Hannah pays her no mind. Rather, what she does is pray. She prays earnestly and passionately for a son, and promises to lift her son up in the Lord and give praise and glory to God through her son. She prays so much so that the pastor, Eli, mistakes her for being drunk.
13 Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk 14 and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.”
15 “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have 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 have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.” 1 Samuel 1: 13–15
Through her passionate and unceasing prayer, God listens to Hannah and grants her what she desires. Hannah, finally receiving a son, names him Samuel, which in Hebrew sounds like the word heard by God.
20 So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel(b), saying, “Because I asked the Lord for him.”
1 Samuel 1:20
(b) Samuel sounds like the Hebrew word for ‘heard by God’
In my life, I have a constant struggle with prayer. I strive to make prayer a continual habit in my life that I do every day, that unfortunately I don’t prioritize, but I need to. For a while I noticed myself saying “I’m praying for you”, or “I’m keeping you in my prayers”, when in reality I would only pray for them once or absolutely forget entirely. In my effort to combat this, since the beginning of November 2018 I started a prayer list, where I compile peoples’ prayer requests as a reminder of those that I’m praying for. As my list continues to exceed pages expected, it has made me realize that there are an abundant amount of prayers that need to be prayed about. So you of little faith — pray. Take 5 seconds of your day to thank God for the birds. Take 30 seconds to praise Him for answering a prayer. Go do your devos. Go to prayer meetings.
14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him. 1 John 5:14–15
The amount of things to pray about never ends, but God hears them. Prayer is a miraculous and powerful act of love and communication to our Father. For those that struggle, a simple prayer of asking God to give you the desire to pray more goes a long way, because God always hears your prayers. I encourage you readers to prioritize intentional time throughout your day to talk to God through prayer, praise, love, and determination! Have more faith in the Lord and be confident in your faith! Pray for the desire to pray. Pray to pray.
I smell like beef,
Theo Firtandi
