Follow Through

This is a series about rejecting fear and embracing faith. It focuses on the story of Hannah praying for a son and how she believed her prayer would be answered without doubting or worrying. The speaker emphasizes the importance of having faith in prayer and not nagging or doubting God. They also highlight the power of choice in controlling emotions and the significance of the Holy Spirit in the new covenant. Welcome to Fear No Fear. Grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit embrace you today. This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture. We reject fear in any and all forms. Fear is a spiritual force, the currency of darkness and ignorance. It's what we inherited when Adam gave up his faith and Satan uses it to keep people down. His only weapon is words. If he can get you believing or looking at words of fear, he's got you. Instead, we champion faith as an allegiance to God, as a belief and trust and loyalty to the Lord God Almighty. We accept the evidence of His word as unvarnished truth, as is, just as it's written. We get close to His perfect love through the word, and perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4.18 All scripture is taken from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Visit eBible.org 1 Samuel 1.17 Then Eli answered, Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of Him. What was the petition? It was something that Hannah was passionate about. She was so passionate about it that when she was praying, she is described both as being in bitterness of soul and weeping bitterly. Verse 10 She wasn't wailing out loud, but praying silently with only her mouth moving. Verse 13 Eli, the high priest, saw her, and from her great emotion and silently moving mouth, he assumed she was drunk. Verse 14 This is real emotion. This wasn't some mild thing. This is true, passionate, deep-from-the-heart emotion. She was pouring her soul out to the Lord, and, Verse 16 tells Eli, she was speaking out of the abundance of my complaint and my provocation. This isn't a whim. This is deep-heart desire, greater than anything in her life. This was front and foremost the biggest issue she had. Eli speaks in prayerful response, and also in prophecy in his role as high priest, and tells her that her prayer is answered, to go in peace, because it was answered. And she did. And the next two verses, 18 and 19, show that she said, Let your servant find favor in your sight. So the woman went her way and ate, and her facial expression wasn't sad anymore. They rose up in the morning early and worshiped the Lord, then returned and came to their house in Ramah. She believed Eli, and the issue was settled. It's easy to dismiss this story. She prayed for a son, Verse 11. She was told that she'd have her prayer answered, and that she did. In the second half of Verse 19, she was pregnant. In Verse 20, she'd given birth. But time did pass. The rest of their time at Shiloh in worship, the journey home to the hill country, six to eight hours at a minimum, with her rival who was prone to provoking her severely to irritate her, Verse 6-7 However many nights it was until she and her husband lay together and she got pregnant. He had two wives, after all. And finally, the term of the pregnancy, since there was no way to know whether she was going to have a son or a daughter. Ultrasounds weren't much of a thing, after all. During none of that time is she mentioned as worried, doubtful, or anxious. That time is a blip. Nothing of import happened. That's something to note because we have six to eight verses here at the beginning of this chapter where the focus is on her misery, sadness, bitterness, and inability to function. She couldn't eat, she was so upset, Verses 7-8. But after she was told she would have her answer, she was content. She expected it to be fulfilled. It was no longer an issue. She was happy. She was eating again. She was eager. It doesn't record that any of her rival's torments ceased. It doesn't say that there was any evidence it was going to be fulfilled at the beginning. The pregnancy would have been a bit of a tip-off for a previously barren woman, but she waited from beginning to end in faithful expectation. Now, this might not impress you, but let me ask you this, honestly. Do you do it? When you pray, do you do it? You pray, and then you're done? You walk away? You see, we are to come before the Lord in prayer, 1 Chronicles 16-11. And in 2 Chronicles 7, 14-15, Yahweh God is telling His people that prayer is important. If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, pray, seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sins, and will heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. In Jeremiah 29-12, Job 22-27, Psalm 17-6, and Psalm 102-7, He promises to listen when we call. Proverbs 15-8 tells us that prayer is a sacrifice that pleases Him. Let My prayer be set before you like incense, the lifting up of My hands like the evening sacrifice, Psalm 141-2. So we can see how important prayer is. But after you pray your prayer, then what? Do you really believe it's been answered, or do you worry at it? In all those verses, it doesn't tell you to pray more than once. It doesn't say, keep bringing that request to Him. Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us to nag God. In fact, Jesus went the opposite route, and in Matthew 6-7 says, In praying, don't use vain repetitions as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their much speaking. In every scripture in the Word, where we are told to pray, it is implied that once the prayer has been prayed, it is hands off. It's done. It's in the hands of the Lord. Don't pray about that thing again. Don't worry about that thing again. Don't be anxious about that thing again. There are no take-backsies. Now isn't how that should be? Once we're told we have something, shouldn't we stop asking? That happens as kids, right? We ask and we ask and we ask, but once we're told yes, we stop. We know we're getting it, and we kind of know that if we nag now, it's probably going to be taken away from us. Not that God will choose to not answer our prayer because we're nagging, but He isn't going to be thrilled that we don't believe Him. Oh, wait. What was that? Yeah, asking for things more than once means you don't believe He heard you the first time, or that you don't believe you'll really get it. And you know what? If you don't believe, you might not, because disbelief kills the ability of the Lord to operate in the sense that we give permission for the Lord to work in our lives. Matthew 18, 18-20 tells us we can bind and unbind what operates around us. Doubt means we're removing that permission. We are binding Him with our doubt. It's like opening a door to let someone in, and then partially closing it because you're not sure they're going to come in, or that you want them to come in. Chances are they aren't going to squeeze through the gap and enter. They'll wait for you to open it all the way, or they'll walk away because all your body language is saying that you don't really want them there. Now, we're blessed in that Yahweh God is merciful and full of loving kindness. He does sometimes squeeze through the crack, but not always. Look at Matthew 13-58. He, Jesus, didn't do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. Unbelief, doubt, it kills faith. No faith, no move. Because faith is the currency of the kingdom. Without faith, nothing happens. 2 Corinthians 5-7 tells us we walk by faith, not sight. 1 Corinthians 10-5 tells us that a whole generation of Israelites were overthrown in the wilderness because of their lack of faith. Hebrews 11-6 tells us that we can't please the Lord without faith. Faith, that eager expectation in God's ability to grant our prayers and requests is a key foundational part of receiving answers to our prayers. We can't have expectation if we're doubting, if we're gnawing at the bone that brought us to the Lord in the first place. It's simple, but it's not easy. Hebrews 11-1 says, Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen. That means we will pray, but things may look the same. It may not look like anything is moving toward the positive. Hannah didn't pray and immediately start showing. There was a process. There was time that passed. For some of it, there was no evidence of anything. For most of it, there was some evidence, but we all know how dicey things can be. Sometimes we think we're getting a boy and we get a girl, and vice versa. She, like us, had opportunity to doubt, fret, and pray again about it. But there is no evidence that's what she did. It was such a done deal for her that we go from request to fulfillment with barely any passage of time narratively. Now I had thought that with this verse, I would be spending most of our time talking about choice and free will and the decision to not let your heart be troubled. Now all of that is true, but it isn't what I'm feeling in my spirit. Now briefly, let's reiterate what I have said before. Anxiety, worry, depression, and all emotional states are choices. Now feelings are not a choice. They are the input that our bodies give us to process. We can choose to evaluate them with our spirits through Jesus and inform our mind what emotional state it should occupy. We are not at the mercy of our environment, our upbringing, or our DNA. We are not animals. We are above that. We choose our emotions, not our feelings. We choose our actions and words. We are not slaves to our stimuli or our circumstances. Now there's a myriad of verses to support this, but I will go with Jesus' words in John 14. One, don't let your heart be troubled is what it says. Let is defined as to give opportunity to or fail to prevent. It isn't automatic. It is a choice. So what I do feel in my spirit as the focus of this verse is the attitude of prayer. Hannah came in bitterness. She came in passionate weeping. But Hannah was under the old covenant. We have a better covenant, Hebrews 8.6. We have the Holy Spirit indwelling us. We have Jesus in us and us in Jesus. That is a significant difference. We are given different instructions as to how to pray, Matthew 6, 5-15, and Luke 11, 1-13. Jesus instructs us to come to his Father starting with keeping his name holy. Philippians 4, 6-7 tells us to bring our requests with thanksgiving. Psalm 104 tells us to approach the Lord with thanksgiving and praise. Continue steadfastly in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving, Colossians 4-2. This is a whole other attitude in prayer. Yes, there are going to be times when our anguish and desperation will drive us in passionate pleas to our Father. But that is flesh-based prayer. Us letting our circumstances dictate to us how we should feel and be. It is a completely worldly, fleshly, plain way of looking at things. And yes, I have done it more than once myself. It is a natural human thing to do. But we are not human. We are new creatures, a new creation. We are a restored spirit being in Jesus. We are to be like him. Now, one of the most emotional moments of Jesus' life was the Garden of Gethsemane on the eve of his crucifixion. He was sorrowful. He says he was sorrowful unto death. He was tormented by the devil. You better believe that this was one of those another times that was mentioned in Luke 4-13. But Jesus didn't whine. He didn't cry. He prayed with reverential respect and tenderness, calling out, Daddy, Father, and praising his abilities. Look at Mark 14-36. He said, Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Please remove this cup from me. However, not what I desire, but what you desire. Granted, I'm sure that's not the tone of voice he used, but what was the model? What is our model for prayer then, even in passionate circumstances? Praise and acknowledgment God is our Father. Our request? Further praise in our submission through obedience. Praise, placing, praise. By placing, I mean the choice to put the matter into God's hands. A, by the way, if you could take care of this, that would be great. Filling to your praise sandwich. Matthew 6-8 tells us that God knows our needs. Luke 12-28 tells us God will provide for our needs. John 16-23 tells us that when we ask according to the will of the Father, which is the Word, we will always get what we ask for. So why are we trying to take back our requests? Why are we giving these things to him and then worrying about them? Yes, those thoughts will come up. Negative and bad thoughts assail us constantly because our battlefield is in the mind. We don't need to entertain them. We don't need to dwell on them. Now, we can look at them. We can think about them and say, no, that isn't from my Father. That is not good. I reject that. How do you reject that? You can pray it down, praise it down, and or actively focus on something of the Lord to drive that thought into submission. Now, the best way to do that is praise, which is why we are told to praise so often. Praise prepares our hearts and our minds to receive of the Lord. When we receive of the Lord, we aren't receiving of the enemy or the world. Our channel is taken. Our focus is on Him. It's the way to live. It's the way to pray. It's the way to give things to Him and then not take them back. It's what enables us to eagerly expect the fulfillment of our word-based requests. Hannah prayed, was told she would get what she asked for, and immediately in 1 Samuel 1.18 thanked Eli and was done with it as a request. We should be the same. We can be the same. Praise your requests to the throne. Praise them into His ears, and praise your way out of His court. After that, whenever the issue comes up, thank the Lord for what He's done and is doing. Thanking Him for dealing with it. Thanking Him you don't need to worry. Thanking Him it is solved, done, God, and finished, and then focusing on praise. Oh, come, let's sing to the Lord. Let's shout aloud to the rock of salvation. Let's come before His presence with thanksgiving. Let's extol Him with songs, for the Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth. The heights of the mountains are also His. The sea is His, and He made it. His hands formed the dry land. Oh, come, let's worship and bow down. Let's kneel before the Lord, our Maker, for He is our God. We are the people of His pasture and the sheep in His care. Today, oh, that you would hear His voice. Psalm 95, 1-7. Let Him hear your voice today. Hear His in response. Let praise mark your prayers. Let praise be the record of your eager expectation and the fulfillment of your word-based requests. Pray with praise and praise in prayer, without ceasing, in all circumstances, and let the peace of God dwell in your heart. When your hands are gripped in passion, bitterness, torment, and anguish, whether in despair or in prayer, you cannot receive. But when your hands are open and outstretched in praise, there is no end to what He can place in them. Praise and receive today. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Hosea 2, 19-23. We are more than His creation. We are more than His obedient servants. We are more than His brothers and sisters. We are more than His children. We are His betrothed. We are His covenant partner, the collective one that is set apart, holy, pleasant, and pleasing. How can you doubt His love when He is so careful with His preparation of our hearts? How can you doubt His love when He has done all He can to ready us for life with Him? He has clothed us, provided for us, prepared a home for us, has a banquet waiting for us, and eagerly calls to us about spending time with us face to face, hand in hand, dedicated to Him. No one who didn't love us would go to the trouble. No one who didn't love us could see us not as we are, but as we could be. Only one who loves us could possibly show us mercy. Only one who loves us could be so tender with us. Only one who loves us could want us to walk where we can enjoy blessing and avoid trouble. Only one who loves us could die in compassion for us. Only one who loves us could make a way. He loves you. He loves you and will never stop loving you. We are His people. Yahweh is our God, now and forever, always together. Amen and Amen. As we close, remember that you have birth. You are precious and valuable. Declare this. Today, God loves that I, now you, fill in the blank. Was it a meal you made? A smile you gave? Did you get out of bed? Read? Put on socks? There's no wrong answers here. There is no end to God's love and no end to the things about you that He loves each and every day. Pick one. And remember, the Lord loves you just because He loves you. 1 John 4 9-10 tells us, By this, God's love was revealed in us that God has sent His only-born Son into the world, that we might live through Him. And this is love. Not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. His perfect love turned away God's wrath because of sin. And it casts out our fear, too. See verses 18 and 19. We love because He first loved us. He just loves us. Can't get enough of us. And that is wonderful. See you next time.