Unanswered prayer – when we feel that God is not giving us the answers in prayer for which we are seeking – is a difficult area for many Christians to tackle. We know the promises of God regarding prayer, but sometimes our experience seems far removed from these promises. This morning, Dave looked at the testimony of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1:1-28 TNIV to show us how God often uses difficult circumstances to refine our attitudes and draw us closer to Him. As Bill Hybels says, “God always has the answer to our prayers: ‘No – Slow – Grow – Let’s Go.'”

Hannah is an unlikely heroine, yet her persistence in prayer resulted in the birth of one of Israel’s greatest prophets, Samuel. The story starts with the story of her barrenness, which Scripture makes clear resulted directly from God. Sometimes our hardships and limitations come from God, rather than from the enemy (who in any case can only do what God allows him to do, as the story of Job makes clear, whilst the healing of the blind man in John 9 refutes the oft-held notion that unanswered prayer is always the result of personal sin.) Hannah wrestles with her infertility for many years, longing for a child and having to face the verbal abuse from her rival, Penninah. She has to move from bitterness, anger and frustration to a place of surrender and submission before she sees the answer to her prayers.

For many years, Hannah’s predicament does not change. She is sorrowful, angry, and finds it almost impossible to cope with this heartache. Her name means ‘woman of grace’, but her grace must have been sorely tested by Penninah’s mockery and ease at bearing children. Hannah learns, however, to seek God through her sorrow. Ps 51:17 TNIV reminds us that the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. Her prayer in this chapter is a prayer of submission (1 Sam 1:11 TNIV), for she promises to give her son back to God if she is granted her request and this becomes also a prayer of sacrifice, for she now realises that children are not just given to the parents for themselves but are a gift from God, loaned to parents for a short time, but given ultimately for God’s greater purposes.

Hannah’s attitude has changed. Her selfishness at wanting a child for herself and for her own reasons has been replaced by selflessness. She is now prepared to put God’s will above her own and to do what God wants. She has learned to respond as Mary would in later days: ‘May it be to me according to your word.’ (Luke 1:38 TNIV).

Samuel, the son born in due course, means ‘asked of God.’ The chapter may start with unanswered prayer, but it definitely doesn’t end there! Hannah is true to her promise and gives her son back to God, for Israel needed a prophet who could be soaked in God’s presence from an early age. She has moved from despondency over unanswered prayer to a greater understanding of God’s plans and her attitude has changed so that she now approaches God with clean hands and a pure heart, knowing that God is in control at all times and is always willing to hear and answer prayer.

Today was the Macmillan Coffee morning at church.

We raised £114.21 at the coffee morning and the church has agreed to send £250 in total to Macmillan. Many thanks for all your generosity.

The new Matt Redman album ‘Your Grace Finds Me’ duly arrived in our household this week (still waiting for the Phil Wickham album, alas…!) As always, I love the songs. But as always, I love also the heart behind the songs – the fact that Matt Redman pays such generous tribute to all who have been involved in the making of the album (from the songwriters to the musicians to the artist who designed the album cover to the myriad backstage people who normally never see the limelight), the fact that he is involved in a creativity that spans the arts as a whole (if you watch the video below, notice the artist drawing the lyrics out behind the musicians), the fact that he is so aware of God’s grace and mercy in the everyday and the mundane as well as those special moments of life. We all need daily reminders of grace. It’s the very thing that makes life worth living.

“It’s there in the newborn cry.
There in the light of every sunrise.
There in the shadows of this light:
Your great grace.

So I’m breathing in Your grace
And I’m breathing out Your praise.
I’m breathing in Your grace:
Forever I’ll be
Breathing in Your grace
And I’m breathing out Your praise.
I’m breathing in Your grace:
Forever I’ll be
Breathing in Your grace
And I’m breathing out Your praise
Breathing in Your grace
Forever, God, forever, God.” (‘Your Grace Finds Me’, Matt Redman)
‘Your Grace Finds Me’, Matt Redman (recorded live version)

Sooner or later in our church, most conversations end up with food! Tonight’s Bible study was no exception. We were discussing Ps 65:5 TNIV: ‘You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds’ and Mark asked us what examples we could give of ‘awesome and righteous deeds’ God has done for us.

Works of healing, provision, leading and guidance were mentioned, but to me, the way God communicates His awesome, lavish, generous nature is best summed up by thinking about cupcakes.

Just getting a cupcake (a ‘bun’ in Yorkshire parlance) is itself a luxury, not really a necessity. But a plain sponge cupcake is not seen as particularly exciting:

The mere fact that God answers our prayers at all is pretty amazing, I think! But I have recently seen, very vividly in my own life, just how much more generous God is. He doesn’t just give us a plain cupcake. He gives us answers that have ‘all the bells and whistles on’, rather like these lavishly decorated cupcakes:

The variety of toppings we can have – butter-cream, whipped cream, iced buns, sprinkles, additional sweets like Smarties or sugared jellies, nuts, chocolate and so on – is mouth-watering. God is that kind of God. His ‘awesome deeds of righteousness’ go beyond sufficiency into abundance, just as Jesus promised a ‘good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.’ (Luke 6:38 TNIV)

That kind of abundance and awesome attention to detail shows us the kindness and generosity of God.

The Bible study today looked at the question of ‘how can we have confidence in God?’ We started by reading Psalm 65:4-7 TNIV, looking at the many things in those verses which encourage our confidence in God.

First of all, God has chosen us and therefore we are blessed (Ps 65:4 TNIV, John 15:16 TNIV, Eph 1:4 TNIV). In a way, He chooses us because He has confidence in us; He knows what He can make of us and what we can become in Him. This gives us a sense of purpose and hope, because we are not living random, pointless lives, but lives that have meaning in God’s plans and purposes.

God brings us into relationship with Him: He draws us to live in His courts (Ps 65:4 TNIV). We have a long-term relationship with Him, one that will last all eternity! We are brought into His wonderful family and are drawn into holy places. We are filled with good things; fully satisfied by all that God has for us. There is an abundance in God which overflows and meets our every need.

The mere fact that God answers us is amazing, but His answers are awesome deeds of righteousness (Ps 65:5 TNIV). There is such provision and plentitude in God! He is our Saviour, the source of our salvation – our rescuer, our deliverer, the One who saves us from trouble. Not only that, but He is our confidence and hope. We have confidence because of His faithfulness in all creation – not only in creating all we see but in sustaining it (see Ps 65:8-13 TNIV, Heb 1:3 TNIV). We see His faithfulness in maintaining the seasons, in sending rain and helping the crops to produce a harvest, just as He promised Noah (see Gen 8:22 TNIV). ‘You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance.’ (Ps 65:11 TNIV) Again, we see more than enough in God.

Next, we looked at the confidence found in Psalm 27:1-6 TNIV. God brings light into our lives and is our fortress and protector against enemies; because of Him, we have nothing to fear. We can have confidence in His protection and deliverance; not only is He our hiding-place and refuge, but He lifts us up to high places (Ps 27:5-6 TNIV). As we seek His face, we find beauty in His ways and are blessed with songs of praise (Ps 27:6 TNIV).

Prov 14:16 shows us the follies of feeling secure in our own strengths and having self-confidence that has no regard for God. If we rush in without due consideration of the Lord, we are hotheaded and reckless. We can have confidence in God’s vision and plans because He sees the end from the beginning. He is the One who is able to bring His plans to completion (see Phil 1:3-6 TNIV) and we can also have confidence because of His assurance that nothing will be able to separate us from His love (Rom 8:37-39 TNIV).

One of the things that we find so hard to grasp about God is the fact of His unconditional love. As we were challenged on Sunday to add love to our faith and to understand that that love is not just brotherly affection but is actually the same kind of love that God has, I have been meditating on His unconditional love.

Most of our lives as humans is spent understanding the relationship between cause and effect. We very soon learn the principle of ‘quid pro quo‘ (even if the Latin term comes later in our understanding!) This is all about one favour in return for another. If we do something for someone else, they will do something for us. “You scratch my back; I’ll scratch yours” is the popular saying reflecting the same principle!

God’s love is not like that, however. He loves us no matter what. He doesn’t just love us if we obey Him or if we respond or if we pray or if we accept that He loves us. He just loves us. And that same kind of love is totally liberating to us and is the measure of all true love. No conditions. No strings attached.

Wow! Such a simple thought, and yet one we find so hard to grasp and so difficult to reflect back to a world which really needs to see unconditional love in us in order to see it in God.