Today we begin a new series of devotionals for the News of the Week focused on the theme “Listen.” While there are many things vying for our time and attention, this essential life skill is indispensable for each of us who work for Loma Linda University Health. What are the emotions that come to mind when you think no one is listening to you? What happens when it appears that God isn’t listening? We will spend this year learning from the experiences of several individuals in scripture who learned to develop this skill.
—Spiritual Care Team
I suppose each of us has an unrealized hope. We know the experience of longing for something and yet never having it come true. One person longs for someone special to love; another longs for a healthier marriage; and still another longs for escape from a situation that has become a grinding burden. For those who are believers, this longing has become a focal point of their prayer life. The words, “God, please …” are now the hallmark of their prayer life. Yet still, their desire has not been satisfied.
Does that describe you today? If it does, you are not alone. There was a woman named Hannah who lived in a time just before three key figures in the history of Israel appeared on the scene: Samuel the prophet, and the kings Saul and David. Hannah had an unrealized hope. In fact, it was more than a hope — it was a yearning so deep that it was affecting her whole life.
True to the mores of her day and time, her husband, Elkanah, had two wives. And also true to the mores of her time, a woman without children had cause to feel deep shame. Hannah had no children, while her rival seemed to have a child a year. And she took pleasure in rubbing salt into Hannah’s raw wound. The Bible records it this way: “… her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat” (1 Samuel 1:6–7).
So Hannah turned to God in prayer. “Please …”
I suppose any person who claims faith in God has known the experience of unanswered prayer. They know the experience of bringing a request — maybe a deep, heartfelt request — to God in prayer and yet never seeing the fulfillment of that desire. Certainly, in a health care context such as ours, most of us have witnessed someone pray and pray and then pray yet again for healing, and yet come to the end of their journey without the desired answer.
Remarkably, however, Hannah’s prayer was answered. Here’s what took place: while on a journey to the Temple in Jerusalem, she was engaged in such emotional prayer, pleading with God for a son, that Eli the high priest thought she was drunk. “Put your wine aside,” he said to her.
To which she replied: “I am not drinking; I’m praying.” And then the whole sad saga tumbled out.
And the Bible says that “Eli answered, ‘Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of Him’” (1 Samuel 1:17). Not too long thereafter, Samuel — who would become one of the most famous prophets of Israel — was born to her.
The take home message? Don’t give up hope. Don’t give up prayer. In fact, just don’t give up. Because God is still listening, and prayers are still answered, and hope still gets fulfilled.
—Randy Roberts, DMin, is vice president for spiritual life and mission at Loma Linda University Health.
