A thought...or two

God has really been stirring in my heart when it comes to prayer. I have recently been reading an amazing book, "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire" which I think should be a must read for everyone. I also have been challenged in my personal devotional time as well as in group settings about prayer and what it should be in my life.

I recently read 1 Samuel 1-2:11 during my personal time with God. I have been coming back to this passage over the past few days. It is about the birth of Samuel. I am struck by his mother Hannah's passionate plea to God for a child. Even though she is the wife who is loved, even though the other wife has supplied children to her husband, she continues for years to cry out to God for a child of her own. She came to the point of "bitterness in her soul" and she wept and prayed to the LORD.

I am struck by the fact that she desired something so much she prayed for years. How often do I pray for something and when it doesn't happen within months, weeks or days I figure it just isn't supposed to be? Not only did she pray for years for a child, she did it under difficult circumstances. She even got to the point of "bitterness in spirit". I know I would have given up for sure by that point.

Her prayer becomes desperate, to the point where she makes a vow with God. You give me a son, I'll give him back to you. (my paraphrase) And isn't it interesting that when she gets to the point of saying "you can have back what I so badly want" that God remembered her and gave her a son.

As I have pondered this passage over the past few days there have been many aspects that I have thought about, but I am left wondering about this:

What do I so passionately want from God that I am willing to get on my knees and ask for it for as long as it takes?

and

Am I willing to surrender my desires back to Him if He decides to answer my prayer?

What are you praying for? Do you believe God is going to answer, or are you pryaing because it's the right thing to do? God wants us to seek Him, but not for personal gain and satisfaction, rather so that He can work through us and the desires and passions He has placed within us.