Who said the first prayer in the bible

There are, it seems, at least ten lessons for us:. Before the above passage, we see Hannah at a meal, weeping and unable to eat. It is after one of these meals that she prayers. Although Hannah was not intentionally fasting it is worth noting that she did pray on an empty stomach.

Physical hunger seems to go hand in hand with spiritual hunger. There is a subtle tone of urgency to this whole story. This is a reasonable inference from the story: had Hannah been repeatedly praying for a son the story would take on a whole different color. If you read St.

Francis de Sales classic work, Introduction to the Devout Life , his instructions for prayer constantly include the stipulation that one should prepare for prayer be placing oneself in the presence of God. Being in the presence of God in the later history of ancient Israel meant being near the altar, the place of sacrifice.

This was vital for post-temple Judaism, which had to develop a spirituality in the absence of a sacrificial system. For us too, the story reinforces the bond between prayer and sacrifice. Indeed prayer really is a sort of sacrifice—a sacrifice of the will. This is at the core of the most basic Christian prayer: Thy will be done. It is quite interesting that this moment of deeply interior prayer is not entirely a private affair. The text notes that the priest Eli is also present as a witness to the event.

It does so in a gratuitous way before it is narratively necessary. Eli, after all, does not really enter the story until the second part. But the author makes a point of mentioning that he is there at the beginning.

Here, perhaps, we have a lesson that prayer is enhanced rather than diminished through the participation of others—priests, saints, and other intercessors. She weeps profusely, baring her soul before God. Bring the bitterness, the tears, the distress to Him. Prayer is not a transactional communication but a true communion.

Me, too. Adam had things figured out. His initial response to the situation was fear. I think he really expected God to take him out on the spot.

We are surrounded by a humanistic world-view that makes each of us responsible—responsible for everything from the condition of the planet to getting positive outcomes in our personal lives. He is the One who helps us in our weaknesses and takes over when words fail us. Romans Today, when you respond to the urge to cry out to God, rest in the conviction that He is the One who started the conversation.

He is the One with the plan. He is the One with the power to make things right. Ron is president of FBH International , a multi-language media ministry and maintains an active itinerant speaking ministry in churches and conferences. Much of his writing is published on the ministry website and has been used in radio broadcasts. Ron has been married to Debbie since They have four children, one of whom is married.

They live on a acre farm in the Niagara region which they share with a few horses, chickens, cats and a dog. Thanks Ron for sharing your inspiring and insightful thoughts. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account.

Notify me of new comments via email. That is not true of me, but sometimes I get more honor when I go abroad. People call me "Doctor" Stedman. They speak with great, obvious reverence and respect, and that is nice, in a way.

But you know, I have noticed that when my children were small they never treated me that way. When I would come home from a day here at church, they did not come out in the driveway and say, "Oh, thou great and mighty pastor of Peninsula Bible Church, welcome home to lunch!

They were more intimately related to me than that. They would run and jump into my arms and tell me what they had been doing that day. That is the picture Jesus gives us of true prayer; and that is what you see, by implication, here in the Garden of Eden. The very fact that it took place in the cool of the day is an indication that it was a relaxed, unpressured time.

Their work, or whatever it was they had been doing, was over and they could feel relaxed and refreshed. With a 7-Up in hand, I am sure, they walked through the garden, talking with their dear Friend in intimate and unrestricted conversation about whatever was on their hearts. That was prayer, that artless manifestation of being relaxed in the presence of a trusted Friend. But now notice something more from this account.

Sin had entered by this time, and Adam and Eve were hiding from God. All the informality was gone, replaced instead with fear, a sense of shame, and an unwillingness to come before his presence. But God himself again assumes the initiative to correct that condition. He begins to address questions to Adam and Eve. Now, it is very, very important to understand that, because there is already evident in this account a gulf that had come in between man and God, and it is God who undertakes to bridge that gulf.

There are times in our prayer lives when we too sense that gulf that separates us from God. We are either too afraid, too lazy, or too dull to come before him.

The encouraging thing to me about this account is that God himself assumes the responsibility to change that. He does it in prayer by the asking of questions. There follows these three questions that come from the divine lips:. It is very important, of course, to understand that God does not ask these questions because he does not know the answers to them.

He knows the answer to every question before he ever asks it. He never asks a question for his own benefit; no account of Scripture ever records a divine question that was asked to satisfy the curiosity of God.

Jesus was always asking his disciples questions, not because he did not know the answers, but because the questions would arouse an investigation, a search on the part of the individual, and he himself would learn something from that search. Remember that remarkable passage in the book of Job, when, in the 38th chapter, God summons Job before him and says to him, "Stand up now and gird up your loins like a man and answer me," Job He reminds Job that he had been asking for that privilege for a long time, saying, "Oh, if I just had a chance to talk to God.

I've got some questions I would like to ask him about what he is doing to me. Here I am. But let me first ask you some questions to establish your credentials, to see if you can play in my league. But not one of them can Job answer. Finally, he is found on his face in the dust, crying out, "I despise myself, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes," Job God then begins to work. Something similar is occurring here in the Garden of Eden.

Here are Adam and Eve hiding. They do not want to know God, to talk with him, or to see him, but God himself calls them out, and gently, not harshly, begins to ask them some questions.

His first question is very important:. I do not know any question more important in life than that. God is teaching us by this means that, in this sin-cursed earth in which we human beings must now dwell, it is important that we frequently ask ourselves, "Where am I?

If somebody who had never been here before started out for this service today but got lost and telephoned someone here, and said, "I don't know how to get there. Can you help me? Of course it would be, "Where are you? Where am I in this journey through life? What's happened to me? Am I nearer to the fulfillment of my dreams than I was a year ago, or am I further away and finding them fading rapidly into the distance?

Am I nearer the objective, the ideal, or what I wanted to be as a man or a woman now than I was a few years ago? Where am I? How wonderful that God teaches man this about himself. Adam must have struggled with the answer. Well, here I am Lord, here in the bushes, feeling shameful and naked and deprived and away from you.

He begins, for the first time perhaps, to grasp the enormity of what has happened to him. I have seen men and women go through that many times; so have you. All the difficulties of our life tend to be God's voice shouting at us, "Where are you? God's second question is equally significant: "Who told you that you were naked?

That is a very perceptive question. God implies, "I didn't tell you, but somewhere you have learned this. You never knew it before. Here are Adam and Eve cavorting around the garden, enjoying themselves, and doing their work, absolutely stark naked, totally unaware of any implications of that, unaware that they are candidates for a centerfold somewhere!

Now, suddenly, without any visible outward change, they are filled with shame because of this fact. God's question implies, "Somebody told you that. You didn't find it out yourself because it has been true for a long time and you didn't know it.

Somebody has been talking to you. He must have told them they were naked. Thus the Lord God in his mercy and compassion has led this couple to an understanding that there is a tremendous need in life to discriminate in the voices we listen to. We need to heed this warning as well. There are many voices shouting at us all the time. Turn on the television and listen to the commercials. The quiet voices shouting through the stridency are constantly saying to us, "You need this.

You don't have it. You're deprived. You need this new mouthwash in order to make you able to handle social situations.