Answered Prayer

1 Samuel 1:16 Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.

Eli thought Hannah was drunk as she prayed to God for a child. But Hannah assured him it was simply that she was downhearted because God had not given her that for which she had prayed so fervently. Following the above statement, Eli tells her to go and says, "may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him." God does. This is one of those moments in the Bible where I think, now why did God grant her what she asked for? Did Hannah say something fancy? Did she pray so long and ask so often that God just gave in? I don't have an answer as to why God responded to her prayer with a son, Samuel. Our prayer life can be so difficult sometimes. We seek God and ask for what we think would be the proper way, but God doesn't always do what we ask. Often, it seems He does something so completely opposite of our hopes. Yet we still come to Him with our prayers and our requests. So, I have to ask, what is petitioning all about? Why does God want me to come to Him with my prayer requests? I think it is simply this; I believe God wants us to be in His Presence, even if, for a while, it means we are only asking for things. Once we get past the initial requests, God can move and speak in ways that our hearts can understand. We can understand His answers when they are completely beyond what we meant or hoped. Spending time in prayer is about spending time with God. Hannah was given Samuel and in return, she gave Samuel to God. What a thank offering for an answered prayer!