Praying According to God’s Agenda brings Results

Today I would like to share with you about how God used Hannah for his purpose to be accomplished. Jennifer Kennedy Dean writes, “Hannah is not the primary character in the story. Nor is Samuel. Pivotal to the whole story, the central cohesive element, the linchpin, is God himself. Everything else—Hannah’s barrenness, Hannah’s prayer, Samuel’s birth—is the working out of God’s eternal agenda.”¹

Hannah had been asking God to give her a son, she was barren, she felt hopeless, and she felt God had forgotten her. At the turning point of desperation, she made this vow: “O Lord Almighty, if you will look down upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you. He will be yours for his entire lifetime” (I Samuel 1:11).

 After Hannah returned home, God opened her womb, she conceived, gave birth to a son, and named him Samuel. When she realized that only God could answer her prayer, and focused her faith in him, was she willing to give her son back to God was her desire was met. God needed to shape Hanna’s heart for his agenda; earlier she was ready to be a mother but not the mother of a prophet.   We read in I Samuel 2:35 where God says to Eli, “I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind.

Hannah found herself in a hopeless situation while God was working His agenda. In reality, if Hannah’s prayer for a son had been answered, as she desired, she may not have given him to the Lord as she did. God had to prepare Hannah’s heart to give up her son because he had great plans for her son. God used Samuel in a mighty way; he became a mighty warrior in the battlefield and a prayer intercessor for the Israelites. In addition to Samuel, God blessed Hannah with three more sons and two daughters, answering her prayers more abundantly.

This is a good lesson for us in praying for our grandchildren. When challenges come into their lives and your prayers are not answered according to our agenda, God may be working out His agenda in their lives, which is far greater. When praying for our grandchildren, we need to trust God to work His agenda in their lives.

Is God preparing your heart before your prayers can be answered

for your grandchildren?  

By Lillian Penner, Nat’l Prayer Coordinator, Christian Grandparenting Network

¹ 2003   The Praying Life, Jennifer Kennedy Dean, Waiting on God. P 98