Hannah- Clinging To A Dream

June 13, 2006
I received an amazing devotional in my e-mail this week. It was about Hannah (1 Samuel 1:10-17). Here are some quotes from it:

"Sometimes we must experience the hurts of life without benefit of sympathetic
counselors or understanding friends. Like Hannah, we must sometimes fight our
struggle alone. Yet not really alone, for God is always a prayer away.

Never dream without prayer. When we talk to others about the dreams in our lives, we often get blind stares of disinterested discouragement - roadblocks, rejection. But when we take our dreams to God, we begin an adventurous journey of faith. It may mean being broken along the way, but only to let our dream escape. It may mean going through seasons of searching, but only to determine how much of our dream is selfish - and to prove how badly we really want God's way. Prayer keeps holy dreams alive.

Hannah was tested... in the midst of families going to offer their worship and their sacrifices, she felt all alone without a child.

We are tested so our character will match our dreams. Christian character is a work in progress for us as believers. When God gives us a dream, we may need a lot of work on and in our lives to enable us to handle the dream. Our sufficiency and strength should always be in God - and God alone. As with Hannah, it usually is a pretty good clue that the test or the dream is from God when things don't work out easily. The greater the dream, the greater the testing.

Do you have a dream that feels like it's dying in your life? Don't give up. Take it to God in prayer today. And trust Him to do more with your dream than you could ever do yourself."
- Jim Henry (From "1 Minute Bible for Women of Character" by LifeWay)