God Knows

Is anyone in the midst of personal pain? Feel like someone has made you feel like you’re crazy? I mean you know they hate you or the thought of you, but they continue to pretend they like you for some unknown reason? This has many names… they have many names. Usually the first answer to someone going through this is to question if they are just in their head and leading themselves down this path of pain. Not blaming the victim, but make sure you are the victim first. We definitely live in an age of victimhood. It seems that everyone is drama nowadays. Drama is everywhere, there is no doubt about that! But is it just that—drama? Lately the Lord has been leading me into documentaries and clips of World War II, American slavery, and the overall plight of the Jews over the last two millennia. When watching these horrid times, we see the deep pain it causes people. In fact, generationally they can be afraid and/or scarred from the events that happened generations before. How can anyone deny the pain? How can anyone not have a heart for humanity in general? Didn’t Jesus care for those who were lost? (Luke 9.10). I mean, He did die for them! Wasn’t He, “…moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd…”? (Mark 6.34). I believe people down-play the plight of others so as to unattached themselves emotionally to their own involvement or lack thereof. Our lack of compassion condemns us from within. It’s called conviction! It isn’t Christlike at all to not care. We must! 

What about the person who really is being the target of someone else’s abuse or ridicule? It doesn’t matter what form it takes or what form they take. I’ve had the unfortunate front row seat to a many-a-drama. Kids abusing their parents by their words, holding them hostage; Parents abusing their children because they can; bosses using their power over people to passive-aggressively destroy their self worth; etc. Kind people, weak people, hurt people, and the perpetually abused person seems to always take the hit. Vulnerable anyone? Well then here comes another jerk to take you down one more notch! It is at this juncture I must say—God Knows. Maybe that didn’t give you the warm fuzzies you were hoping for. Perhaps it did and that is all you needed was to hear (read) those words. I have found, that if you truly believe what God says in His word, then you can have peace and understanding. This is what I want to attempt to give you today. 

1 Samuel 1.1-19 is our text. I pray you read all 19 verses in full. You must. You need to see the context and how the drama has unfolded. For now, I’m going to be focusing on verses 6-7— “6 And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb. 7 And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat.”

She was in the midst of a personal pain. It was real, tangible and painful. There is no personal drama here… there is a woman who is being abused because of things she cannot control. Sound familiar? Why would any person focus their attack against someone who was smaller or weaker than them? Have you ever been bullied just because you were different? Perhaps it was because you were poor or your dad left. I’ve witnessed both of these play out on a school bus myself. Why? Why the hate? Why the dominance kick? It is in all of our blood. We are all a fallen race of human beings. It is horrible and we are all susceptible to it. I read of Hannah’s difficulty and think of all the ladies I have met that cannot have children for one reason or the other. It hurts to see them in their hurt. I couldn’t imagine though another coming along side of one of them in church and saying, “sucks to be you!” No way! That is anti-christ behavior. Hannah though was with such a person. Hannah was in such pain emotionally that when she did pray she looked as if she was going mad. She didn’t care if someone was watching or listening. It wasn’t lip service, it was from the heart and to be kept silent. She did what we all must do when someone is inflicting damage upon us… pray! Pray in the midst of the adversary you have, if you have to. The scripture calls her that in verse 6— “adversary”. One who is set against another on purpose. We see her purpose was to hurt Hannah because she is jealous, but we will take more time later on that. Her adversary provoked her to the point she was weeping and stopped eating. Talk is just that, talk, but it does provoke and hurt. David asked God to help in private and on occasion in the midst of his enemies. You can see this play out again and again in the Psalms. One that we quote often shows us the desire of David for his adversaries to see how much God is blessing him, “Thou prepares a table before me in the presence of mine enemies…” (Psalm 23). 

Hannah’s adversary had what Hannah wanted, a child. But she didn’t have what Hannah had, Elkanah’s love. Jealousy is the heart of an adversary. Don’t stoop to the level of your competition.  Instead do what Hannah did—pray! This adversary attacked Hannah with the intent of wounding her mind and causing her grief, with an end goal of eroding and destroying Hannah’s very spirit. It does happen. And inevitably it seems that person gets away with it. Except we know God Knows. The adversary is just talk, but Hannah’s prayer was not just talk. She was pleading with her Father who is the perfection of a Daddy. Romans 8.15 says, “…ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father”. This is what Hannah did. And God knew. The thing that makes this frustrating for Hannah is up to this moment she felt as if God was not answering her. It’s important to understand that, according to the bible, unanswered prayer may result from sin in the life of the person praying (Psalm 66.18). It can be from or a lack of faith (James 1.6-7); which is not praying according to the will of God (1 John 5.14). Or praying from impure or selfish motives (James 4.3).

But what if you pray, meet all the requirements, and still don’t receive an answer like Hannah? The answer is simple—God is sovereign. He answers prayer in His time and according to His purposes.  Do you trust He knows better? If you believe He Knows… then do you also believe He knows better than you? What is the best, I mean the top tier cant go wrong kind of best? God’s way is that best way and all others are a failure at best, and at worst damnable to your entire lineage. Hannah prayed and wept and longed for a child. At the right time God gave her a son who would be a blessing to the entire world. Samuel, the last judge and the first prophet. This is the man who never said an empty word, and all his prayers were heard (1 Samuel 3.9).

Hannah was in the presence of her adversary and God answered her prayer. When the stakes were the most high, she made sure that all could see she was pouring her soul out to God. She was that unashamed of her King of kings, her Sovereign, here loving Father, that she cried unto Him without reserve. She knew that God Knows. When it seemed hopeless for us, that is when God stepped in and proved His power. His power defies our logic and our human means. God doing a God thing is just God being God. We should be in awe. His timing though, is essential. We do not have all the answers and we cannot know the beginning from the end of anything in our life. God does know though. Hannah gave demonstrable proof that when you wait on God: He will give you a peace; change your countenance; and bring a silence to all the haters out there. 

Do you have a particular ‘hater’? Is there an adversary like Hannah’s who seems to be doing more than ‘getting to you’? Today compile an unanswered prayer list of requests. Add them to it. Add the thing they are using against you. Then, across the top write, “remember Hannah” as a reminder that God hears our prayers and answers them when it is best to answer them. Believe, trusting God when praying. Just as Hannah in 1 Samuel 2.1-10 there will be a time when you will be able to praise the Lord for not only what He did, but who He is. So at the bottom of that list write these words, “God Knows”.