When God Doesn’t Answer Right AwaySample

Open Hands

When Hannah returned home from Shiloh with Elkanah, her husband, and they slept together, she finally became pregnant. Scripture says, “the Lord remembered her plea.” After honoring God with Samuel, Hannah went on to have five more children—a reminder that her story didn’t end in sacrifice, but continued in God’s faithfulness. Hannah also remembered to honor God with her breakthrough. When Samuel was old enough, Hannah and Elkanah took him to the Tabernacle to leave him to serve the Lord permanently. When she saw Eli, the priest she met on her previous visit, she testified to what the Lord had done for her. “I asked the Lord to give me this boy, and he has granted my request,” she told Eli. Hannah conceived and gave birth to five more children after Samuel! Samuel not only served the Lord but became a prophet who did great things for Israel. Samuel anointed Israel’s first king, Saul, and its most famous king, David. The same God Hannah trusted with her first miracle continued to write a story greater than she could have imagined.

When Hannah received her breakthrough, she remembered to honor God. She didn’t forget to be faithful in her new joy as a mother. She gave up her miracle while it was still precious and new. She had just begun to experience the answer to her prayer—and then she placed it back in God’s hands. You would think Hannah would have sorrow in leaving her miracle child at the Tabernacle when he was so small and she had no other children. But the opposite happened. Hannah gave a prayer of praise to God. She declared, “My heart rejoices in the Lord!” Hannah rejoiced in the Lord at the very place she used to cry bitterly and pray in deep anguish. Her life had been one way, and after years of ugly but honest prayers and tears, her life was completely different.

Hannah didn’t simply treat God as if He was her magic genie, simply there to grant her requests. She recognized that the answer to her prayer served a greater purpose for God. Once Hannah received her blessing, she trusted and loved God enough to bless Him back with what she cherished most.

It’s one thing to trust God in the waiting. It’s another thing to trust Him with the answer.

Hannah’s story challenges us in a deeper way. It’s not just about receiving from God, it’s about what we do with what He entrusts to us. If you saw the answer to your prayer today, would you honor God with it? Would you continue to spend time with God in prayer and tell the testimony of what He’s done? Hannah could worship and praise God with joy because she understood her hope and faith was not in the breakthrough, but in the Holy One of Israel. She said, “No one is holy like the Lord! There is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.” Even after Hannah received her blessing, she knew her Rock was God, not her blessing. Hannah’s story doesn’t end with a blessing—it ends with surrender and praise.

Anchor Thought:

I will honor God with what I prayed for.

Short Prayer:

Lord, there is no one like you and you are my rock! I ask that you would move in my life and situation like you did for Hannah. Teach me to honor you with what you entrust me with. Let your will be done in my life on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.