Look on my Affliction I Samuel 1:11

She made a vow and said, "O Lord of Hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your handmaid and remember me and give me a man child, I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life and there shall no razor come on his head."




Here is the prayer of a woman who had not been able to have any children. Her husband had two wives and his other wife had given her husband several children but Hannah had not been able to have any. This was very difficult for Hannah and she did the only thing that she knew to do; she went to the Lord in prayer and she made God a promise that if God saw fit to give her a male child, she would dedicate him to the Lord and set him apart for God's service.

The priest at the temple blessed Hannah and she went home rejoicing, trusting God in spite of all that she had been through. The Bible tells us that she did go home and God did hear her cry and He gave her a child and even though this was the only child Hannah had, she remembered her promise to God and she took the young child back to the temple where she had made the promise to God and she left her child with the priest who blessed her so that he would be raised up in the Temple and God would be able to use him as He saw fit. God blessed Hannah's faithfulness to keep her promise with other children and He also took young Samuel and used him in a mighty way as well.

We do not like affliction in our lives. Hannah could not understand why she had been through all that she had been through. She did not understand why she could not have children. In her day, a woman who could not have children was cursed. It was as if she did not have any value at all. Hannah had lived a good life and she loved God and had been faithful to His Word. Why did Hannah have to face the difficulty that she faced? Unfortunately, only God knows that answer. However, when we are able to look at the "rest of the story", Hannah's difficulty actually laid the foundation for her to be able to do what God wanted her to do all along.

If Hannah had been able to have children as her husband's other wife did, she might not have been willing to dedicate this child to the Lord. Had she been able to have children, this child's birth might not have been so special and the world would not have been able to see the hand of God at work so vividly. Had young Samuel been born in more ordinary circumstances, he might not have been so accessible to the voice of God in his life. On and on we could go with the applications in this story. The facts are clear. God chose to bless Hannah in an unusual way and the circumstances that she had to endure before she was to give birth to her son were worth it all in the end.

There may well be circumstances that are going on in your life that you do not understand. You may be facing ridicule and embarrassment and personal difficulty and there may seem to be no relief in sight. The only thing that you and I can do in good times or in bad, is to hold onto the Lord and determine in our hearts to walk with God no matter what and trust Him to give us the desires of His heart. If we will do that, the day will come when we like Hannah can look back and say, "It is well with my soul and I am glad that I stood with the Lord and let Him have my life."

God knows the afflictions that you may be facing today. He knows why you are facing what you are facing and He knows the solution and He will do for you what only He can do if you will just allow Him that opportunity. Prayer indeed works miracles! Remember, to God there is no such thing as a miracle!