God doesn’t call us to do the spectacular and dramatic, we don’t need to make some big gesture, but to live lives of faithfulness where we are. Seeking his kingdom every day where he has placed us…. God is worthy of worship as the refuge of his beleaguered people struggling with life in a fallen world.

What do you expect God’s answers to your prayers will look like? Often, we miss God’s answers to our prayers because we expect them to look big and spectacular. But do you notice the ordinary and everyday way God answers Hannah’s prayer in 1 Samuel 1. There are no angels, no shining lights, no miraculous conception whilst she’s at Shiloh. Instead Hannah becomes pregnant in the natural normal way “in the course of time” (v. 20) and Samuel is born. He’s weaned and he grows and is taken to the temple where he serves God as Hannah fulfills her vow.

We need to be careful with narratives like this. It’s not a blanket promise that everyone who struggles to have children will have children. It is not ruling out processes like IVF, though they need careful thinking through. And we need to recognise that whilst offspring was the way of growing the Old Testament people of God, we’re not called to have children to grow the kingdom but to make disciples of all nations.

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