Joy of an answered prayer.

Samuel was an answered prayer. Prayer answered by the Lord.

There is a joy that fills your soul when God answers your prayer. This joy cannot be gotten when your needs are met through any means aside God.

Such joyful experience was the reason for the loud exclamation of Hannah when the Lord granted her request.

“And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth IN THE LORD, mine horn is exalted IN THE LORD: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice IN THY SALVATION.” (1 Samuel 2:12, Emphasis added).

She could not hold to herself or conceal the joy that overwhelmed her. Her heart was filled with joy and her mouth could not but give expression to this joy and its Giver. For of the abundance of heart the mouth speaks.

She was not rejoicing in her strength, smartness or dexterity but in the Lord. She was not exalted in some worldly or natural thing, but in the Lord. And it was by the salvation of the Lord she was delivered from her enemies.

Such rejoicing is not carnal and temporal but it is everlasting because it comes directly from God by an answered prayer. It is a sustainable joy and a very strong one that bears the nature of the Giver. It finds its root and origin in the El Shaddai, therefore can never run dry. You will want to experience this joy!

The reasons you need to have this God-kind of joy

I. For God’s fullness: in addition to your request that was granted by God, you are also brought closer to Him because you are now experiencing a part of Him which is the joy of the Lord. You are made to draw from Him and bond with Him. As a vessel, you will be carrying a tangible part of God. If your needs were met by some other ways, you will be devoid of God and have little or no regard for Him. And the consequences of this can be extremely disastrous, for the devil will soon erase the memory of God from you and deceive you to rest and trust in vanities.

II. For strength: this joy gives strength. Nehemiah 8:10 says “…for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Immediately Hannah had this joyful experience, she saw herself braced with sufficient strength and quickly declared again, “…they that stumbled are girded with strength” (1 Samuel 2:4). She had been feeble but now she could loudly laud the Lord and give prophetic thanksgiving to God. She was strengthened, not just physically but also spiritually.

III. For revelation: in Hannah’s prayer of thanksgiving, she gave us some revelations about the Source of her joy which we might never had known if God had not visited her with His joy by answering her prayer.

So this is the kind of joy that further gives us the revelation of Jesus, makes the unsearchable judgments and unfathomable ways of God clear in our mind.

This also points to an important fact; the devil tries to cloud believers’ life with sorrow so they would faintly perceive God or see His love. Thus, the enemy keeps magnifying his presence in their lives.

IV. For the ministry: this joy forms part of your spiritual artillery needed in the ministry. Since you are now a partaker of it, you will be able to give others in ministering to them and delivering them from despair and darkness. Paul hinted this possibility when he was talking about ministering comfort to others with the same comfort he has been comforted with by God.

 “Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” (2 Corinthians 1:4).

So this joy becomes tangible and transferable in your hand in the Name of Jesus. And if you have not experientially received this, you will be incapable of exuding and sharing it with those in need.

What a joy to be desired by everyone.