Our Wednesday Evening Message for September 13, 2023

​

                                                "Prayer of Praise"

                                                       Text: Judges 13: 1-8

​

​

​​ In our Wednesday night Bible study, we are walking you through the various prayers found in the Old and New Testament. There are 100 of them found in your Bible.

​

In this study, we look at the prayer of Hannah, the mother of Samuel. In our text, we see her prayer of thanksgiving and praise to God for answering her request in  giving her a male child. In I Samuel, we see only two prayers of Hannah. The first one is a prayer of petition to have a child, and the second one is a prayer of praise for God answering her prayers.

​

Simply put, Hannah prayed after the answer came to her petition as well as before the answer came. So we need to follow the example of Hannah in our prayers. If the only time we pray is when we ask for something we need, then there is quite lacking in our prayer life.

​

In the same way, the Apostle Paul admonishes us on how to pray in his writings to the Church of Philippi. Listen to his words, "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."( Philippians 4:6)  In other words, we should take time to thank God for answering our prayers.

 

Paul goes on further to say that there is a benefit to us when we do this. Notice his words, "And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:7)  In other words, we experience the peace of God when we pray which guards our hears and minds through Christ Jesus.

​

In this magnificent prayer of Hannah, we see her prayer comes from her heart. She is saturated in enjoying the joy of the Lord. This is the central theme of her prayer. Listen to her words, "My heart rejoiceth in the Lord...because I rejoice in thy salvation.' (I Samuel 1:1)

 

In this first verse of Hannah's prayer,  She uses the word "salvation." It is the Hebrew word "Yeshua." It means "Yahweh (the Lord) is salvation." The English spelling of Yeshua is Joshua. However, when translated from Hebrew to Greek, in which the new Testament was written, the name Yeshua becomes Jesus in English spelling. This corresponds to what the angel Gabriel told Joseph concerning the pregnancy of his betrothed wife Mary. Listen to the angel's words, "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sin." (Matthew 1:21)

​

Yes, there is much we can learn from this prayer of Hannah. It is this type of praying that God wants to hear from us in our prayers. Such praying pleases our Lord.

 

​

 

                                                          Pastor Michael R. Martin

 

​

 

​

 

 

​​​​                                                               

 

​

​

​

​

 

​

 

 

​