{"id":21392,"date":"2014-08-22T00:20:16","date_gmt":"2014-08-22T04:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=21392"},"modified":"2014-08-21T18:10:45","modified_gmt":"2014-08-21T22:10:45","slug":"child-prayed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/08\/22\/child-prayed\/","title":{"rendered":"For This Child I Have Prayed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"encouragementbloggraphicromans15\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hannah was strong. \u00a0So strong that God knew she could handle a really big struggle. \u00a0Hannah was not able to have a child. \u00a0(Hannah’s story can be found in 1 Samuel, chapters one and two<\/a>.) \u00a0Oh, how her husband loved her though. \u00a0However in those days, having a child was extremely important, especially having male children to carry on the family name. \u00a0She longed for a baby to love. \u00a0Not to mention that a woman’s identity back then was based on child bearing.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t long until her husband, Elkanah, took a second wife named Penninah. \u00a0She was able to give him many babies. \u00a0The house was full of children but none of them were Hannah\u2019s. \u00a0Penninah constantly talked about her ability to have children in front of Hannah and taunted her and mocked her. \u00a0Can you imagine the pain that she felt? \u00a0Her arms aching to hold her own little one and her feelings crushed under the constant berating of the other wife. \u00a0Her depression was overwhelming.<\/p>\n

She decided to fast and pray for a child. \u00a0She made a vow to the Lord that, if He gave her a son, she would give him back to Him. \u00a0Hannah knew that the source of her being able to get pregnant was not her husband but her amazing, faithful, powerful God. \u00a0She prayed from the depths of her soul and named exactly her desire…and He heard her.<\/p>\n

And she made a vow, saying,\u201dO Lord Almighty, if you will only look
\nupon Your servant\u2019s misery and remember me,
\nand not forget Your servant but give her a son,
\nthen I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life,
\nand no razor will ever be used on his head.
\n1 Samuel 1: 11<\/p>\n

The Bible says that she didn\u2019t pray out loud so men could hear; she simply moved her lips to the Lord. \u00a0He heard her and answered her prayer and gave her a son. \u00a0His name was Samuel, meaning \u201cheard by God.\u201d<\/p>\n

So in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son.
\nShe named him Samuel, saying, \u201cBecause I asked the Lord for him.\u201d
\nVerse 20<\/p>\n

God hears us, too. \u00a0He understands us and our pain and He longs to take it away. He loves us so much and always does what is best for us. I will admit that I don\u2019t always understand the \u2018why\u2019 of what I am going through; and I sometimes get really frustrated. \u00a0But I remind myself that He is sovereign and knows the bigger plan that will give me the blessed life that He has in store for me.<\/p>\n

Hannah trusted God. And she remembered her promise to Him. \u00a0 When she had\u00a0weaned her little boy, she fulfilled her promise to God. \u00a0I\u2019m sure it was painful to pack his little bags and take him to the tabernacle and leave him there with the priest.<\/p>\n

And she said to him (Eli), my lord, I am the woman
\nwho stood here beside you praying to the Lord.
\nI prayed for this child and the Lord granted me what I asked of Him.
\nSo now, I give him to the Lord.
\nFor his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.\u201d
\nAnd he worshipped the Lord there.
\nVerses 26-28<\/p>\n

Samuel grew up to be one of the most influential leaders in Israel\u2019s history. \u00a0All because Hannah was a great mother and she was totally devoted to her Heavenly Father.<\/p>\n

What are you asking God for? \u00a0Do you need provision? \u00a0Are you struggling to have a baby? \u00a0Healing from an illness? \u00a0What are you believing Him for? \u00a0Nothing is impossible for our God. \u00a0He is the God of the impossible.<\/p>\n

For with God nothing shall be impossible.
\nLuke 1:37<\/p>\n

I have seen and experienced so many miracles that would have been impossible—if not for Jesus. \u00a0God wants you to believe that He can<\/em><\/strong> and He will<\/em><\/strong> answer your prayers. \u00a0He also wants you to name them specifically. \u00a0Yes, He knows what you want…but He wants to know that you know<\/em> what you want.<\/p>\n

And last, He wants you to thank Him for what He is going to do in your life. Ah, that is showing that you have faith that He will<\/strong> do what He says. He will<\/strong> come through for you. It will be in His time, but He will<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 *\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s pray<\/span><\/strong>: Dear Lord, what an awesome privilege to come to You in prayer, knowing that You are hearing us when we seek You. \u00a0We believe that You will answer us and will give us exactly what we need. \u00a0Lord, when we are weak and doubting, help us to remember all the times that You have been faithful and answered us and given us what we need. \u00a0Forgive us when we take our eyes off You and we put our doubts in place of You. \u00a0Thank You for being in charge of us and for each blessing that You have planned for us. \u00a0We love You and we praise You. \u00a0In Jesus’ name, amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hannah was strong. \u00a0So strong that God knew she could handle a really big struggle. \u00a0Hannah was not able to have a child. \u00a0(Hannah’s story can be found in 1 Samuel, chapters one and two.) \u00a0Oh, how her husband loved her though. \u00a0However in those days, having a child was extremely important, especially having male […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":20533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6228],"tags":[7115,6998,365,1287,425,7114,7117,589,2833,7118,7116],"class_list":["post-21392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-encouragement-2","tag-1-samuel-1","tag-encouragement-blog","tag-faith","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-hannahs-prayer","tag-he-hears-us-pray","tag-kim-spring","tag-luke-137","tag-nothing-is-impossible-with-god","tag-samuel-and-eli","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/encouragementbloggraphicromans15.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-5z2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21392"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21403,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21392\/revisions\/21403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}