God Takes Notice
What does it feel like to approach God with a posture of expectancy?
1 Samuel 2: 21, The Inclusive Bible
YHWH took care of Hannah, for she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile Samuel grew up in the presence of YHWH.
The story of Hannah is one that has often been lifted as a testimony to faithfulness and patience in the face of God’s timing not aligning with our hopes and dreams for life.
But I wonder sometimes how this story is also weaponized to keep people from expressing their true feelings, or the true desires of their hearts. And, when those feelings don’t become a reality, how has this scripture been used to meet people with false and dismissive platitudes about the ways they have fallen short of some reward that God did not deliver.
I reject that, and I want to reclaim Hannah as a woman that God took notice of. That God loved. God worked through Hanna to create a legacy of faith and tenacity – not just because of her patience against all odds – but because she was courageous enough to believe in a God big enough to hold the yearnings of her heart and her body.
What does it feel like to approach God with a posture of expectancy? What could it feel like to practice prayer with expectant hope?