Ask the Lord to Remember You
“...and the Lord remembered her.”
- 1 Samuel 1:19
When we met Hannah earlier in chapter 1, she was waiting for God to answer a prayer she’d tearfully uttered year after year. By that point, the power and wonder of prayer can seem distorted as they are replaced by deep disappointment and confusion that tempt us to lessen or change the prayer just to find respite. Hannah, however, refused to let the waiting alter her prayers, and, instead, she prayed all the more, asking God to remember her (verse 11).
In verse 19, the Lord does remember her and the footnote brings us to Genesis 8:1 when “God remembered Noah”. We learn that “to ‘remember’ in the Bible is not merely to recall to mind; it is to express concern for someone, to act with loving care for him.” So we can read verse 19 as, “the Lord acted with loving care for Hannah”. That loving care enabled Hannah to finally exclaim, “I prayed… and the Lord granted me what I asked of him” (verse 27).
Looking back at Hannah’s persistence, she either asked God to remember her because she thought He had forgotten her, or she asked God to remember her because her years of knowing Him assured her that in time He would act with loving care for her. Hannah understood that we can know the future provision and care God will offer by recalling the past provision and care He has given. Confident in God’s history of caring for her, her prayers persisted, but they didn’t have to lessen or change because she was giving them to the One who had and always would care for her better than anyone else.
In those moments when uttering the same prayer feels disheartening, the lyrics below offer me comfort and hope, and I think Hannah could have sung them both before and after “the Lord remembered her,” because she knew He had and always would.
No one ever cared for me like Jesus
His faithful hand has held me all this way
And when I’m old and grey
And all my days
Are numbered on the earth
Let it be known in You alone
My joy was found
When you find you’ve uttered the same tearful prayer year after year and have considered abandoning or changing the prayer, may you find comfort by recalling God’s past provision and care. When you ask the Lord to remember you, know that He does.
When you have 5 minutes, I’d encourage you to listen to: No One Ever Cared For Me Like Jesus by Steffany Gretzinger.
~ Nicole Mulder
