I encourage you today to read Hannah’s Prayer and meditate on it.

Hannah’s Prayer

2 And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord, mine horn is exalted in the Lord: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy salvation. ² There is none holy as the Lord: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God. ³ Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth: for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. ⁴ The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength. ⁵ They that were full have hired out themselves for bread; and they that were hungry ceased: so that the barren hath born seven; and she that hath many children is waxed feeble. ⁶ The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. ⁷ The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up. ⁸ He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the Lord‘s, and he hath set the world upon them. ⁹ He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail. ¹⁰ The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.

Hannah’s Prayer offers great praise to God. She speaks about God lifting the poor and lowly into a place of inheriting the throne of glory. It speaks about not being proud and arrogant. But the one part that stood out to me is verse 9. It says that God will keep the feet of his saints and that no man shall prevail by strength. It is so easy to think that we need to depend on our strength, but this verse says no man shall prevail on his strength. This means we cannot succeed without God. It seems to imply that we will ultimately fail without God. We need to realize that in any circumstance, we need God and cannot do it alone. We tend not to lean on him when life is good and only realize this need when we go through a crisis. Let us remind ourselves that we need to continuously lean on him and realize that we need God every day in all circumstances. He is the one that gives us the strength we need, and we should find ourselves in a place of gratitude for this.