Project Description

2014/07

A Word To Women

“Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great
and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”
(Jeremiah 33:3)

Between 1949 and 1952 revival swept through the Hebridean Islands off the west coast of Scotland. The evangelist, Duncan Campbell, largely attributed the tremendous outpouring of the Lord’s power to the faithful prayer life of two sisters, Peggy and Christine Smith. Peggy (84) was blind, and her sister Christine (82) was almost bent double with arthritis. Unable to attend church, their humble cottage became a sanctuary where they met in prayer with God. They seldom prayed publically, or played any leading role in church life, but they spent hours praying earnestly that the Lord would visit in saving power.  And He did! What an impact, through God, these ladies had in their district!

There was decay, defeat and discouragement in Israel. “Every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).  There was no spiritual authority or leadership in the land. Then the Holy Spirit introduced another praying woman. Hannah bore terrible burdens.  Not only did she have to share her husband, Elkanah, but she was constantly taunted by his other wife, Penninah, because she had no children. Devastated and broken, Hannah accompanied her husband to Shiloh for the yearly sacrifice to the Lord. Bitterness of heart and anguish of spirit clouded her life, to the point where “she wept and did not eat” (1 Samuel 1:7).

What did Hannah do?  She went up to the temple and “prayed unto the Lord” (v10). She poured out her distresses and disappointments before Him. I am reminded of the hymn, ‘take your burden to the Lord and leave it there’. So many of us take our burdens to the Lord but we fail to leave them there; so often we take them away with us again. 1 Peter 5:7 says, “casting (or throwing) all your care upon Him, for He careth for you”.

Hannah left her burden, and she went away a changed person. Her circumstances had not changed; she was not leaving with a baby in her arms. She was still barren and Penninah was still around, but Hannah left rejoicing, with the promise that God would answer her prayer (v17&18). What faith!  She believed that one day she would have a son, a son who would deliver Israel. I wonder, when God speaks to us through His Word, are we as ready to believe Him as Hannah was? Do we hold on to those “exceeding great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:4)?  Do we trust God, even though nothing seems to be immediately changing for the better?

Of course, Hannah did conceive a child. Soon she held in her arms the tiny infant Samuel whom she had dedicated to the Lord. Hannah kept her promise – she gave Samuel back to Him. But instead of being full of sorrow and self pity, Hannah’s heart was filled with rejoicing and thankfulness to the Lord. Her great prayer of praise (1 Samuel 2:1-10), expresses an exalted view of the Lord: “My heart rejoiceth in the Lord….there is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee”. Her delight was not so much in Samuel, though she loved him dearly; or in her own satisfaction, knowing that she was obeying God’s will; but from a contemplation of the majesty and holiness of her Lord.

Soon God’s Word was again heard throughout the land, and the people turned from idols to serve Him. Samuel became a towering figure in the history of Israel. All this was accomplished through the believing prayer of one woman! Can the Lord do the same today? Of course He can! He is “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

D. L. Moody said ‘Every great movement of God can be traced to a kneeling figure’.  Will you be that ‘kneeling figure’ in your home or local area? Will you ‘hold the ropes’ in prayer for our missionaries all over the world? May the Lord enable us all to be ‘kneeling figures’ in His work!

Alison Armstrong.