"My heart finds joy in the Lord..." 1 Samuel 2:1-2

1 Samuel 2:1-2 (GW)

Hannah prayed out loud,

“My heart finds joy in the Lord.

My head is lifted to the Lord.

My mouth mocks my enemies.

    I rejoice because you saved me.

There is no one holy like the Lord.

There is no one but you, O Lord.

There is no Rock like our God.

“Do not boast

    or let arrogance come out of your mouth

        because the Lord is a God of knowledge,

            and he weighs our actions.”

I felt led this morning to dialogue about this portion of Hannah's prayer and expound upon her heartfelt love for the Lord.

Doesn’t my heart find its joy in the Lord?  The Lord daily lifts my head to hear His sweet voice telling me “I love you” and that “you are important to me.” There is joy to be found in His embrace as I lift my head to Him and receive all that He has for me as I approach my day. 

Joy is of the expectation of His presence to come to me and fill me with Himself that I might encounter Him afresh every morning with newness and vigor that comes from the depths of His love for me.

I have many enemies which tell me otherwise, like my mind which has its own agenda which is at war against the desires of the spirit, as well as others who speak words of discouragement which weighs heavy on my heart and attempts to burden me with worry and care which I can neither control nor change.  And then there is Satan himself who tempts me like no other, who whispers in my ear that the promises of God are untrue and that joy is nothing more than an illusion or fantasy that I have created in my mind to deceive myself.

I have the ability to mock all of these voices and raise my head to the Lord and declare that these voices are not real, and these are not the voices I choose to listen to and is not the reality that I choose to live in. I live in the presence of the Lord and His power and refuse to listen to discriminating voices which do not come from a heart of love.

I rejoice because you have and will always save me from my enemies (including my own internal voice which sometimes speaks against me) from being caught in a pit that I cannot escape from, you have placed me high up above all of the chatter and noise where I can hear you clearly, you instruct me in your ways and you alone are the one who tells me who I am.

You Lord are holy, and are separate from anyone and anything, you stand out as being the greatest, the best, the one and only.  There is no one like you, O Lord you are one of a kind, a rock, and a fortress, a strong tower to those who put their trust in you.  You are strength and might to those who need a firm foundation of strength, you are solid, firm, and unchanging, which lends to stability when everything else is moving and changing around me.

Lord, you look at my heart and weigh my thoughts and intentions, you set your watchful eye upon my actions, with knowledge you know the outcome before I even consider it.

I will not boast because of my position or my favor, but I will boast in the Lord who is my strength and my bulwark.  I will allow humbleness to define my words and my actions because I place my trust in the Lord and Him alone.  I believe that He will promote me in His due time, for my confidence is in Him.

All of the ways of the Lord are perfect, I can rest with complete reliance on His great promises that He will protect me and keep me safe.

I place my devoted affection upon the Lord because He has seen me and knows me better than I know myself.

His Joy is my greatest strength, which is the song of my heart and the light of my soul.

Be Blessed;

Stephen Barnett