AP

1 Samuel 2:1-2  Then Hannah prayed and said: “My heart rejoices in the LORD; in the LORD my horn is lifted high.  My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance.   There is no-one holy like the LORD; there is no-one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. …”

How my heart was encouraged as I read Hannah’s prayer as part of my M’Cheyne Plan readings for today!  Many years ago when I was doing my Divinity degree at Sydney University, one of my (very liberal/existential) lecturers challenged me that her ‘faith’ was more genuine than mine because she took her lead from Soren Kierkegaard who said that ‘true faith’ should be likened to ‘treading water in 60,000 fathoms’ (I may not have remembered the actual depth correctly!).  

My response was that if God has given me a Rock to stand on, treading water is not faith, but stupidity.  And that ‘Rock’ has remained steadfast and faithful for the whole 60+ years that I have been standing on it!

If there is anything we need to KNOW and be ASSURED of in these testing days, when the world around us is falling apart, and our culture is being effectively (or so it seems!) undermined by atheistic secular humanism, it is that “Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, a weary land, a weary land, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, a Shelter in the time of storm. Sometimes I feel discouraged, and speak my words in vain, but then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again.  Jesus is a Rock in a weary land …” (African American Spiritual), and that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.” (Hebrews 13:8).

Let us all align ourselves wholeheartedly with Hannah’s prayer: “My heart rejoices in the LORD; in the LORD my horn is lifted high.  My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance.  There is no-one holy like the LORD; there is no-one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.”