And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.
1 Samuel 1:18
Why was Hannah able to walk away from this intense time of prayer and priestly conversation with Eli a changed woman? She had gone with her family to sacrifice for sins, worship Yahweh, and intensely petition the Lord. She made a solemn vow to God. If He would bless her with a son, she would turn him right back over to God's service. She did not share the details of her earnest prayer with Eli the priest. Yet she went home content and no longer sad.
This was a prayer of faith, when the priest blessed Hannah for her sincere prayer, she took all that emotion of pain that she had released to God in prayer and just left it in Shiloh with the Lord. She went home no longer carrying the sadness of heart she had carried with her to the tabernacle of God. She left that emotion behind and gained in its place peace and trust.
God answered her fervent prayers. Hannah was blessed with her son Samuel, whom she dedicated back in service to God in Shiloh while he was still no more than a toddler, giving him back to God in the same place that God had heard her prayers. Her peace, found in the faith to trust in God's ability to answer prayer, allowed her to trust God with her young son whom she left in the care of the priest to serve God with tabernacle duties. Faith can change our feelings. She no longer wanted a son for herself. She wanted a son for God's glory! Trust can make our hearts sure and focused on God in joy. And that is a great reward from God that this world cannot give to us.
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