Desperate Prayer in Desperate Times

Our passage today is found in 1 Samuel. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will begin in chapter 1, where we are introduced to Elkanah and his two wives, Hannah and Pananah.

And we read that Pananah had children, but Hannah had no children. We pick up our text in verse 9, So Hannah rose up, after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post to the temple of the Lord.

And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore. And she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look upon the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid a man-child, then I will give unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head. And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli marked her mouth now.

Hannah, she spake in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she had been drunken. And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? Put away thine wine from thee.

And Hannah answered and said, No, my Lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. We will stop there, friends.

Here is a picture of a desperate woman who has a deep longing for her son. Is there an area in her own life that is like a hole in the heart where a deep longing is yet unfulfilled? Are we torn up over it? I'll never forget my wife's bitterness of soul when she was pregnant with her first child and she miscarried and we lost our baby. Suddenly all that joy of being pregnant, along with the anticipation of a new life in our family, was just snatched away.

For the next two months I watched my wife go through a period of deep grief where she wept before the Lord each day in her quiet time. She was brokenhearted, and during that difficult time she wrote a little book of poems in a devotional book for women who had also suffered miscarriage. Writing that little book of poems was therapeutic to her in that terrible time of grief.

And here is Hannah, eaten up with a longing for a son, and while she is praying at Shiloh, she looks disturbed. She's in distress, and Eli the priest sees her and he mistakes her for a drunken woman. I want us to focus, friends, on her statement that she had poured out her soul before the Lord.

That's the key element here in prayer. That's the kind of desperate, soul-wrenching prayer that pierces through the gates of opposition and gains the attention and ear of a holy God. She says, But have poured out my soul before the Lord.

This brings to mind King David, holed up in a cave with his mighty men. The Philistines had a garrison in Bethlehem no one could get through, and we read, And David longed and said, O, that one would give me a drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate. And the three mighty men broke through the host of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and took it and brought it to David.

Nevertheless, he would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the Lord. That's the imagery here. That's the imagery used here in our text of Hannah's desperate prayer, where she pours out her heart to God in longing for a son.

Are we broken? Are we broken over the desperate condition of the church today? Are we broken over the awfulness and sinfulness of society today? How many the church, for many the church has become merely only a social hub rather than a watering hole for thirsty hearts. The presence of God is absent in our midst. We do the best we can to carry on some form of religion.

Oh, but where, oh, where is the breakthrough of the felt presence of God among us? How desperately we need revival that God would come among us, set our hearts on fire for his glory. Where is the longing for his felt presence in our midst? Where is the burning hunger and longing like Hannah had for a son, for God to come and revival in our midst, to break through our spiritually dry condition of our heart and the church, break through with his manifest presence in our midst? Oh, how the people of God need such a breakthrough at this tragic hour where the church is powerless and the people of God have grown accustomed to deadness and powerlessness and defeat. Oh, great God, come forth in apparel for revival in our midst today.

Show yourself strong. Why, this should be our heart cry? Are we broken-hearted like Hannah? Do we long for a breakthrough from heaven? She was desperate and hungry for a man-child. Where is the church's desperation at this tragic hour where the devil has the highway in society and the people of God are completely powerless to do anything about it? Where is the desperation in the people of God? Or will we be content with this deadening status quo in the church where we just go through the religious motions of our life each week without experiencing any of the supernatural power of almighty God? Oh, what will it take to drive the church to her knees in this sad day of spiritual declension, dryness, and deadness? Oh, while Satan and society mock the church for her impotence and her lack of authority.

Oh, where, oh, where is the man of God like the Luther who's sick of the status quo, wants a breakthrough from heaven no matter the cost. We need not only a reformation today, we need a revolution for the devil has the highway and the church has become a powerless institution with a form of religion but of little influence in the world. We need a breakthrough from heaven in a heaven-sent revival.

Oh, great God have pity upon your people, your barren people. Visit us from on high with a mighty move of your grace and power, I pray. Quicken us out of our spiritual lethargy.

Visit us with a heaven-sent revival for these desperate days. I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.