Life doesn’t always hand you what you want. It seems as though it has this inconceivable ability to throw something at you that you either never expected or thought would never return. It seems as though it can make your most secret fears a reality and your dreams a lost and forgotten memory of the past. In its day by day moments, events and circumstances can happen that can cause you to doubt that there really is a silver lining in every cloud. It can make you wonder if God does hear your every prayer and see your every tear. It can be lonely, it can be frightening. It can be heartbreaking and it can be the most difficult thing that you can endure.
The Bible tells of a woman who grieved by the way, her body was shaken with sobs, her lips moved yet no words were heard. Only her heart did cry out to the one whom she spilled out all of her anguish and grief. She was thought to be drunk by the priest who watched from nearby. Appalled that she would bring her sin into a place of worship, into God’s holy temple, he rebuked her. But she turned and said, I am not drunk but in sorrow and I have only come to pour out my soul to the Lord. To this did Eli the priest then bless her and send her on her way. The woman was Hannah and her grief was born out of the reality that she could not bear any children. It was her desire, her dream. It was what she lived for, yet what she desired more than anything she could not have. Her fear of never having children had become a reality, yet she would not let her desire to become a memory of the past. So she brought forth her petition of prayer and her heart’s desire to the Lord and gave it completely to Him. In Him did she put her trust that He would answer her prayer and give her a son. But not only did Hannah bring forth her prayer but she also made a promise. That if God would give her, her very heart’s desire, she in turn would give her desire back to Him in full.
It must have been a beautiful day. Though there was pain and travail, it did not come out of sorrow, it was out of joy. For after the pain had ceased Hannah held in her arms her precious little boy. She kept him until he was ready, and then she gathered him up and brought him to Eli. The priest who had watched her pour out her hearts desire would now take her desire and teach it in the ways of the Lord. Wasn’t a child what she had wanted? Wasn’t it what she should keep?
Yet Hannah had not forgotten her promise to the One who had fulfilled His promise to her. And she gave over her son with thanksgiving and praise in her heart. Hannah was a great woman of faith; she trusted that God would answer her prayer. She trusted that He would bring to pass what she could only dream and long for. Life had not handed her what she wanted. But God had supplied what she needed all because she had put her trust in him.
To trust, as the dictionary puts it, means to have confidence. To say that you “trust in God” is to say that you have complete confidence that He will do what He said He would do. It means to have a strong belief, to believe strongly that God will come through for you. It’s easy to have that belief or that confidence when you are surrounded by keys that can open the door to what you are looking for. But how about when all of those keys can only turn a certain lock or you can find no keys at all? Though Hannah did not see any keys to the door that she longed to open, she trusted that God could open that door. We can try to take situations into our own hand and try to “make things happen”. Accomplish what we need to accomplish, climb the mountain that stands in our way or open the door any way possible. Yet when we take things into our own hands, none of this will happen. For oftentimes that accomplishment we strive for is not as great as the one God longs to help us win, the mountain we try to climb on our own is a mountain that God would be willing to move if we only let Him, and the door we try to break through, in His hands does God hold key. God knows that plans He has for us, plans of good and not evil. Though God could have answered Hannah's prayer the moment the she felt the desire for a child, He did not. For He knew that Hannah’s little boy, Samuel would grow up to be a great man of God. It was in God’s plan to use him to accomplish things that no one else could have done. Samuel could only fulfill God’s purpose for him at the time that he was needed. He was born at a time and raised in a way that was necessary to God’s plan for Samuel’s life. God’s way is perfect and if we trust, believe, have complete confidence in Him and let Him do what He has intended to do our secret fears will die away, our dreams will no longer be forgotten but made a reality. Things will happen that you never expected and things that you no longer want to return never will. You will realize that the silver lining in the cloud is God’s promise that He will keep you and hold you, and you will watch as your prayer is answered and feel His presence as He wipes away each of your tears. For life will not always hand you want, but God will always, always supply you with what you need.
“As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him. For who is God save the LORD? Or who is a rock save our God? It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect."
Psalm 18:30-32
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