God saw Hannah’s pain; He saw her heart in its distress and answered her prayer.
Don’t be reluctant to call out to the Lord in your distress — your trials and temptations. He is listening to your words and the cry of your heart.
In her bitter distress, Hannah prayed to the LORD and wept with many tears. As Hannah kept on praying before the LORD, Eli the priest watched her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart, and though her lips were moving, her voice could not be heard.
Eli thought she had been drinking, but she said, “I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have not had any wine or strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the LORD. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman, for all this time I have been praying out of the depth of my anguish and grief.” “Go in peace,” Eli replied, “and may the God of Israel grant the petition you have asked of Him.” — 1 Samuel 1:10-17
In due time, the LORD remembered Hannah, and she conceived and gave birth to a son, Samuel. — 1 Samuel 1:19-20
Hannah’s voice could not be heard — and God heard her anyway. I think of Julie in those first days after we lost Kristen: a mother in anguish, too broken for many words. I think of my own two months of wrestling with God beforehand, poured out in my journal where no one else could read it. He heard them both. If you are too broken for words today, take heart — He hears the cry of the heart before a word is on your tongue.
“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.” — Romans 8:26
“Before a word is on my tongue, you, LORD, know it completely.” — Psalm 139:4
