S P I R I T U A L   P O W E R P O I N T S

A Father and Son

You can't afford to take your nine-year-old son to a NBA playoff game, but you do have a basketball goal in your driveway. So you invite him to a game of one-on-one. He accepts, laces his shoes, and grabs the ball. As you follow him from the porch, watching him dribble the ball down the steps and across the walkway, you pray that God will use this time to make a special memory between a father and a son.

After your son jokes about spotting you points, you laugh and the game begins. Your mind no longer lingers on the prayer you just whispered, and you no longer compare the sparkle of a live NBA game to the simplicity of a pick-up game in the driveway. You simply relish the moment, trusting that even though you may never see its fruit, this game will be used to glorify God in the family with which He has entrusted you.

A Daughter and Father

When Hannah couldn't conceive a child for the husband she so dearly loved, she turned to the One she knew she could trust her heavenly Father. She cried, "O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life . . ." (1 Samuel 1:11).

Even when one of the priests of the day, Eli, mistook Hannah's praying for drunkenness, Hannah did not allow him to discourage her from trusting God. She replied, "No, my lord, I am a woman oppressed in spirit; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the Lord (1 Samuel 1:15).

When Eli understood Hannah's motive and her heartfelt trust in God, he blessed her. From there, verse 18 tells us that Hannah went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad. The woman whose plight was great and whose pain was deep didn't continue in her sorrow. After seeking the face of God, her appetite was restored and her whole countenance changed. Hannah was a woman who so trusted God that she did not need to see the fruit of her prayer before she delighted in the Lord's sovereignty. She had faith that almighty God had heard her prayer.

A Mother and Son

In God's timing, Hannah did conceive a child, and she dedicated him to the Lord just as she had vowed. Her vow was not a bargain with God; rather, it symbolized how unselfish Hannah's request for a child was. She wanted to be able to bless the Lord with a child who would grow to honor Him and be used by Him. Her heart's desire was pure, and she was favored for bringing it to the Lord.

Yet more than the favor Hannah received from the Lord through her newborn son was the favor of being in God's presence. Hannah's song of praise in 1 Samuel 2does not begin with a mother rejoicing in her son. It begins with a mother rejoicing in her God.

She sings, "My heart exults in the Lord; my horn is exalted in the Lord, my mouth speaks boldly against my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation. There is no one holy like the Lord, indeed, there is no one besides You, nor is there any rock like our God" (v. 1-2).

Hannah found that true fulfillment does not come from God 's answers to prayer. It comes in the prayer itself in trusting God to meet your needs and hear your heart's cries. Neil Clark Warren writes, "When you trust God, everything about your life becomes more joyful and more manageable. A big load is lifted off your back."

Whether you're the father who desperately seeks to raise a godly family, a mother who longs for a child, or you have some other need, cry out to the Lord. Trust Him to be your fulfillment at life's every turn.

> Trusting God