In 1 Samuel chapter 1, Hannah didn’t just want a child—she wanted to ask right. And she knew who to ask. That’s something I’ve been trying to learn in my own prayer life. It’s not just about what I want. It’s how I ask, and why I ask.
Verse 20 stood out to me:
“Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD.”
There it is. “I have asked him of the LORD.” That’s where the answer came from.
I saw three big things in this chapter that helped her prayer life, and I believe they’ll help mine too: her voice, her vow, and her volunteering.
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1. She Had a Voice – 1 Samuel 1:10,13
It says in verse 10 that Hannah “prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore.” But in verse 13 it says, “her voice was not heard.” That’s interesting. She had a voice, but it wasn’t loud. It was in her heart.
Sometimes we think prayer has to be out loud to count. But God hears what’s going on inside us. She was “in bitterness of soul” (v.10) and “vexed” (v.6). Her voice wasn’t in her throat—it was in her heart.
Paul said in 1 Timothy 2:1-4 there are different kinds of prayers:
• Supplications (that’s when you ask for something)
• Prayers (talking with God)
• Intercessions (praying for others)
• Thanksgivings
All of these are ways to use your voice—even if no one else hears it but God.
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2. She Made a Vow – 1 Samuel 1:11
Hannah was so desperate, she made a promise to God. She said if God gave her a child, she’d give him back to the Lord all the days of his life. That’s not a small thing. That’s a Nazarite vow. That meant no cutting hair, no touching anything unclean, and a life totally set apart.
Her vow wasn’t made lightly. She gave because she got. She kept that promise too. She didn’t give up just for a few months or a year. She gave Samuel to the Lord for life.
That reminded me of something—when God answers a prayer, do I give back? Do I follow through? Or do I forget what I said when I was in need?
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3. She Volunteered – 1 Samuel 1:28, 2:18, 24–28
It wasn’t just Samuel who volunteered—his mother did first. Hannah made a vow to give her son to the Lord, and she followed through. That’s not easy. She had prayed, wept, and begged God for a child, and when He gave her one, she gave him right back.
In 1 Samuel 1:28, she said, “Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD.” She didn’t hold back. She followed through completely, and Eli, the priest, saw it and worshipped the Lord right then and there.
Hannah didn’t offer her leftovers. She gave what meant most to her, the very thing she prayed for. She volunteered her own child for the Lord’s service.
Samuel later ministered before the Lord, wearing a linen ephod even as a child (2:18). The chapter contrasts him with Eli’s sons, who dishonored God. They were in the priesthood by position, not by heart. But Samuel? He was there because someone gave him to the Lord, and he served with a willing spirit.
That reminds me: I can’t force someone to serve God. But I can give what I love most to the Lord. I can be like Hannah—faithful to follow through. And maybe my kids will grow up loving the Lord, because they saw what it looked like to give Him everything.
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When I look at Hannah’s life, I see a pattern I want in my own:
A voice that cries out to God, a vow that keeps its word, and a volunteer spirit that serves Him freely.
She didn’t do all that for people. She did it for the Lord. That’s what made it matter.
Voice. Vow. Volunteer.
For the Lord. Not for man.
That’s how I want to ask of the Lord.
