True Womanhood: Part 5

This is the fifth installment of a series of posts I will be writing on the book Voices of the True Woman Movement: A Call to the Counter-Revolution by Nancy Leigh DeMoss.  I received a complimentary copy from Revive Our Hearts ministry just for sharing my thoughts on each chapter.

Chapter 5: "A Woman After God's Own Heart" by Janet Parshall

Do your problems drive you to your knees?  They should.  Looking to scripture at the example of Hannah, we see that her desire to have a child was great.  She was barren. She was provoked constantly by Peninnah, her husband's other fertile wife.  She was desperate, and it sent her to her knees. 

One day she could take it no longer.  She stood up from the dinner table at the Feast of Tabernacles and headed to the temple to pour her heart out to God.  She had to settle the matter in her heart once and for all.  She was ready to surrender to the Lord.

It was at that time that Hannah vowed a vow to the Lord.  She vowed that if He would give her a son, she would give him back to God.  Now I'm not saying you should make deals with God in order to get what you want.  Vows are extremely serious matters, but it's evident that Hannah was very serious about her faith in God.

And so... He blessed her with a son, Samuel, and after weaning him she took him to the temple to serve the Lord.  She never went back on her promise to God, even though it meant she would see him only once a year when they would go up to the temple.  She gave Samuel back to the Lord with a thankful heart for His faithfulness to her.

Prayer is the theme of this chapter, and we're taught that prayer accomplishes mighty things.  When we go to God in prayer, we are able to have a dialog with Him and have Him change our desires and get our thoughts aligned with His will.

Hannah's desire to have a child was poured out in earnest prayer to the Lord, but it didn't stop there.  Once the Lord answered her prayer, she had to continue praying through the experience of motherhood.  She knew that Samuel was not hers to keep forever.  In a few short years, she would leave him at the temple.  I imagine she prayed continuously for Samuel to be used of God, and she prayed for strength every year when she'd make the journey to see him and then leave him behind once again.

I want to become a true woman who prays about everything.  I fail again and again.  I attempt to handle lots of things in the flesh, but then a day or even a week later I realize that I should've been praying all along.  I think we miss out on the abundance of power from the Holy Spirit and opportunities to see God move in big ways by forgetting to pray.

The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. ~ James 5:16b (NASB)

If you'd like to purchase your own copy of this book, you can purchase it at Amazon.com.

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