Spiritual Practices: Keyword Listing
Keyword listing is a method of observational Bible study. It doesn’t require any special skills, tools, or training. You can read more about the process of keyword listing here. You can choose any word or short phrase to study using keyword listing. For this passage, we suggest the following keyword(s) to start your study.
Starting Points
Keyword listing is a method of observational Bible study. It doesn’t require any special skills, tools, or training. You can read more about the process of keyword listing here. You can choose any word or short phrase to study using keyword listing. For this passage, we suggest the following keyword(s) to start your study.
Starting Points
- Hannah (and related pronouns) - Explore Hannah's struggles and triumphs
Spiritual Practices: Breath Prayer
Overview
Hannah felt like life was stacked against her. She was a favorite wife of her husband, but she had not been able to have any children while her rival had multiple children. She felt constantly mocked for her barrenness. We don't know why she was not able to have children. Maybe she was unable to get pregnant. Maybe she had had a few miscarriages and lost children. Whatever the specifics were, year after year she struggled until she thought that God had forgotten about her. Finally, while they are at the temple, she prays out of her pain. She starts her prayer by asking that God will remember her and her struggles.
We sometimes think that God has forgotten us. Like Hannah, we may have had an issue that we have struggled with for years. We think there is no hope, no way that things can get better. We feel trapped, abandoned, and forgotten. By faith we know that God has not forgotten us, but it doesn't feel like it. Like Hannah, we sometimes need to pray that God will remember us in our affliction. Remembering God is the first step towards restoration and sometimes we need to pray that God remember us so that we can remember our hope in him. That is what this breath prayer is about.
Prayer
Start by thinking about something that you have struggled with and are desperate about or feel hopeless about. With that situation in mind, prayer the following breath prayer for the next several minutes.
Oh Lord, remember me.
Overview
Hannah felt like life was stacked against her. She was a favorite wife of her husband, but she had not been able to have any children while her rival had multiple children. She felt constantly mocked for her barrenness. We don't know why she was not able to have children. Maybe she was unable to get pregnant. Maybe she had had a few miscarriages and lost children. Whatever the specifics were, year after year she struggled until she thought that God had forgotten about her. Finally, while they are at the temple, she prays out of her pain. She starts her prayer by asking that God will remember her and her struggles.
We sometimes think that God has forgotten us. Like Hannah, we may have had an issue that we have struggled with for years. We think there is no hope, no way that things can get better. We feel trapped, abandoned, and forgotten. By faith we know that God has not forgotten us, but it doesn't feel like it. Like Hannah, we sometimes need to pray that God will remember us in our affliction. Remembering God is the first step towards restoration and sometimes we need to pray that God remember us so that we can remember our hope in him. That is what this breath prayer is about.
Prayer
Start by thinking about something that you have struggled with and are desperate about or feel hopeless about. With that situation in mind, prayer the following breath prayer for the next several minutes.
Oh Lord, remember me.