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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" (1 Samuel 1:11). When we sit down as a family to eat, we always say the same blessing. Dear God, Thank you fo...
Keep ReadingIn her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. 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 lifeThen she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast (I Samuel 1:10-1...
Keep ReadingIn her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly (1 Samuel 1:10). "God, if you do this one thing for me, I promise I will __________." Have you ever prayed a prayer like that? I have. When I was a teenager, I remember bargaining with God in this way. I was desperate. I knew He was the One who could fix my problem. Although, if I am honest, I hadn't though...
Keep Reading1 Samuel 1 2 On a warm summer day, a woman is walking downtown around lunchtime. There is a slight breeze, she can hear the birds chirping, and she can smell the freshly baked donuts about a block away. She thinks about how hungry she is and how a freshly baked donut would fill her empty stomach. She decides that she is going to get that donut, no matter what, so she kee...
Keep Reading"Don't I mean more to you than ten sons?"(1 Samuel 1:8) Have you ever prayed for something, prayed for years, hungering for God to answer? Was it something that would bring you happiness or erase your shame (or maybe both)? Was it something that consumed all your bandwidth? It's what you thought about when you couldn't go to sleep, what you prayed about unceasingly, what ...
Keep ReadingNow, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. (Acts 4:29) When I was younger, I could eat as much of anything I wanted, and get away with it. As I've gotten older, I learned to be more careful about what goes from my plate to my mouth. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for my work/life balance. I've always been hun...
Keep ReadingWhen they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them" (Acts 4:24). Often, when I read the news, I think, "The world is such a mess." How about you? Each day we are confronted with any number of disturbing news stories. There are stories of wars, oppre...
Keep ReadingOn their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported allthat the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard this,they raised their voices together in prayer to God (Acts 4:23-24a). When confronting a challenge or crisis, we often experience a "hunger" of some kind. Maybe we find ourselves hungering for safety, quick and easy solu...
Keep Reading"Now, Lord, enable Your servants to speak Your word with great boldness."Acts 4:29 As we dive into our new series, Hungry for God, one aspect we should consider as Jesus followers is this: are we hungry to see others come to Him? Please indulge my overuse of bold font throughout this devotional, but I am struck by the Book of Acts' emphasis on just plain talking to non-be...
Keep Reading[Editor's note: the passage for this week is Acts 4:23-34, and Deb, Heidi, Elizabeth andDave will be offering their usual insightful and helpful meditations on it throughout this week. Today's Connect Devotional hopes to serve as an entry door into this new series.] It's a familiar experience: there I stand, looking into fridge or pantry, hungry for something. Or I'm ru...
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