“Abba, Father, he cried out, everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine” (Mark 14:36).

Have you ever been desperate for something? Are you desperate right now? Perhaps it is for healing for yourself or for a loved one. Perhaps it is for someone you know to receive Christ. Perhaps it is for reconciliation with a loved one, or a new home, or freedom from addiction. I imagine that many of you are desperate for something. I know I am.

We are in the middle of Holy Week. You probably know what this means. Holy Week replaces Passover Week in the Christian calendar. Passover represents a desperate time in Jewish history. The Israelites desperately wanted their freedom from the Egyptians, and God delivered them by sending the angel of death to the firstborn of every home, but the angel of death would pass over all the homes that had the blood of a lamb smeared over the door. (Exodus 11-12)

Jesus was in Jerusalem that week to celebrate the first Passover, and to become the sacrificial lamb himself. As divine, he knew his role. As man, he desperately wanted to avoid the pain and suffering he was sure to incur during his arrest, “trial,” and execution. We know this because of his desperate prayer on the cross “Abba, Father, he cried out, everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”  To be sure, Jesus did not want the horrific physical pain he was going through, but even more, Jesus desperately wanted to avoid the hell of having God turn His face away from him.

Jesus gave us the Lord’s prayer as a model to follow. And it is a good one for our daily prayers. On the cross, Jesus gave us another model, a prayer for when we are desperate. 

1. Abba, Father, he cried out, everything is possible for you. We acknowledge the sovereignty of God and his perfect character. God is Great. God is Good.

2. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. We pray with all our hearts for what we need.

3. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine. We commit ourselves to God whatever His answer.

A biblical example of a woman with a desperate heart is found in 1 Samuel, chapter 1.  Hannah was the wife of Elkanah, and by some measure, she had everything a woman in 1050 BC could have wanted. She had a husband with some standing, he was devout, and he loved her like crazy. But Hannah had to share this man with a rival wife, Peninnah.

Peninnah, the rival wife, had a bunch of children, but Hannah had not been able to have any children. We see from this passage that Peninnah was not gracious about it. “Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her” (1 Samuel 1:6). And in that culture, fertility was a sign of God’s favor. Peninnah probably gloated that she was in God’s favor and Hannah was not. Oh, how desperate was Hannah! Hannah was barren—the Lord had closed her womb. Their annual excursion to Shiloh was a source of grief, increased pain, even cruelty, year after year. Grieving her own lack of children, Hannah had a desperate heart. And note that just because Hannah was sad did not mean that she wasn’t a woman of faith. Nothing in biblical faith makes sad things not sad.

What did Hannah do? She prayed to God. I want you to realize how significant this was in her day. She was a woman in the house of God. A woman was the property of her husband. She probably should have asked Elkanah to go to the priest to pray for her. Yet she prayed directly to God. Why? Because she was so desperate. Total despair is where the Lord’s power can manifest itself. God brings good things out of nothing–out of our need, out of our desperation.

So, Hannah was in the sanctuary. This is where she takes refuge from the harassment of her rival wife and from her pain. And how does she go? In a weeping mess. “In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly” (1 Samuel 1:10). Why does she do this? Because her faith is strong! Faith is not the strength of our hearts; it is the collapse of our hearts.

We live in a culture of covering up, not collapsing. The quicker you can cover up, you show you have it going on, right? But remember the prostitute at Jesus’ feet, the blind man by the road, the paralytic man on the roof, Jesus himself at the tomb of Lazarus. There are so many songs of lament in the Psalms, songs born of grief, pain, and tears. Psalm 56:8 tells us You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. Our desperation is important to God.

Hannah is confident that she matters to God. It is not that she sees her barrenness and praises God anyway. We see in 1 Samuel 1:11 that she is using the same model for prayer that Jesus used on the cross.

“And she made a vow, saying, ‘Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.’” She praises the Lord, she begs him for a son, and she commits her child to God.

1. Lord Almighty… She acknowledged the sovereignty of God and his perfect character. God is Great. God is Good.

2. …if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son…  She prayed with all her heart for what she desired.

3. …I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head. She committed her son to God.

This is not the end of the story. Once she prays, she gets up and her face is no longer downcast. She does not know the answer—it is not that the prayer was answered; it is that the prayer was offered. She gave her desperation to God. Her faith is in his character and not in his answer. She knows God is able to do anything, and she knows that he will do the good thing.

We read on to find that her prayers are answered. She has a son, and when he is three years old, she follows through on her commitment to give Samuel back to the Lord. She literally took her three-year-old son to Shiloh to be raised in the temple by the priests for God’s service. This is commitment to his will. She understands that everything she has belongs to the LORD. Hannah prays a model prayer she, she makes good on her commitment to God, and she praises the giver of all good gifts. “Then Hannah prayed and said: ‘My heart rejoices in the Lord….’” (1 Samuel 2:1)

Footnote: Hannah probably never knew that her son played a key role in the Old Testament. Samuel served as a major Old Testament transition figure as the last judge and the first prophet after Moses. God used him as a kingmaker to anoint first King Saul, and then King David, who is the direct ancestor of our Savior, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Just as Hannah probably did not know, we also may never know the long-term impact of our prayers, our commitments, and our obedience.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

In Christ,

Judy