1 Samuel 1:18 NIV
She said, “May your servant find favor in your eyes.†Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.
In our Christian walk, we may have faced many troubles that led is to seek answers from God as we know no one else can help. However, sometimes we are so lacking in faith that after praying earnestly, we still doubt God can help us. The God of the universe definitely can and want to help us if our prayers are according to His perfect will. Hannah has been barren and that had troubled her greatly for many many years. Yet this passage tells us that after pouring her heart out to the Lord, she went away with His peace and faith that God will answer, as she was no longer sad and forlorn. And true enough God answered her not with one child, but 6 children in her lifetime. How gracious is our God? After bringing our troubles to God, we should be joyful and not mournful and praise Him and not give up and murmur. Hannah has shown that prayer works, God hears.
Recently, when we found out that Josiah has been diagnosed with Inguinal Hernia, we immediately turned to God in desperation, asking our prayer groups and cell to pray for him. We really want to ask God for complete healing so that Josiah doesn’t need to go for surgery. After a week of praying, there were times that I felt a little hopeless, as the hernia still appeared constantly. There were times I felt confused and wonder what to do, whether is it right for us to not bring him in for surgery immediately, whether this time of waiting will make it get worse. And then I read the above verse and realised that since I’ve given my burden to God, I do not need to worry and just believe by faith that Josiah will be healed. Sure, sometimes I still ‘wonder’ this and that, but I want to believe that our God can and wants to heal. At the moment, we are praying for wisdom to make the right decision and that God will speak to us on what to do next.
Most importantly, I believe God is telling me to rejoice and praise Him even in this circumstance, that I should not pull a long face and question him why us..but using this situation to glorify Him even more and draw closer to Him even more.
Father in heaven, I thank you for all that you have done in our lives, I thank you for having given us Josiah who is full of joy and has given much joy. We believe even in this circumstance, no one can take this joy away from us, for the joy given by you makes us strong, gives us strength. We also trust you to heal Josiah from all sicknesses, especially the hernia, in the name of Jesus.