The Prayers of a Righteous Woman (1st Samuel 1:1-28)

We start in 1st Samuel with the story of Hannah — a woman whose barrenness, grief, and desperate prayer set the stage for the birth of Israel's prophet and, ultimately, point us all the way to Christ. In 1st Samuel 1, we watch Hannah move from deep pain to honest prayer to open-handed surrender, discovering along the way that her true need was never simply a child, but God Himself. Her story teaches us how to pray in our own pangs — not with bargaining or preposterous vows, but with desperate honesty and hands open enough to receive whatever God gives, and to give it back to Him. Whether you're walking through a season of waiting, disappointment, or unanswered prayer, Hannah's example — and ultimately the Gospel her story points toward — offers a better way forward than either running from God or trying to strike a deal with Him: trusting the God who is worth loving for His own sake, not merely for what He provides.