Sometimes we carry burdens far longer than we could ever imagine. The longer it goes on, the more it wears us down. One of the things I love about the way the Bible tells stories is that it’s disarmingly honest about this reality.

When we meet Hannah she is dealing with constant provocation (v.6), she is not eating (v.8), deeply distressed (v.9) and weeping bitterly (v.9). And it had been going ‘year after year’ (v.7).

When you have no other place to go, when even your home seems to scream, ‘failure’ at you, when your heart is broken and you’re in the dust, where do you turn?

Hannah turns to the Lord. Her prayers are silent, aching — groans that only God could understand (Rom 8:26). Her prayer also shows her faith. She is sure that the God of angels and creation, the God who heard the affliction of her people when they were in bondage to Egypt, would also hear her prayer. That God who saw them would see her. As Christians we can have even more confidence because through Christ we can boldly approach the same throne of grace.

But what is it with God and women who can’t have children? We’ve seen Hannah’s story before.

The Lord constantly reminds us that the plan of salvation and redemption and grace will be on the foundation of His work not ours. It’s true: when we are helpless and hopeless, we turn to Him. And God loves to love those who rely on Him for their strength. 

But also this is the gospel: unable to bring life to ourselves it is God who gives us life. And more than that, God loves the brokenhearted, God loves the ones who are tired, weary, heavy-laden. And because this is a story of God loving Hannah, it is a reminder to us that when we are weary, when we are laid low in the dust, God can reach down to us too.

If you’re interested I preached on Hannah recently at Grace Church. You can listen to that here.