Looking for Deliverance

Everything given plus little replenished equals desperately empty. So many of us look to outside sources to fill our cup when we feel empty and drained. You might hold your cup up to your spouse, your children, a new house, a promotion, or a new car, but only Jesus can fill your soul. Nothing can fill the place that was designed by God for himself. We see in Scripture that Hannah’s cup was empty and she's hoping her husband can fill it. She think, at least initially, if only I could have kids then my cup would be filled and I wouldn't feel discouraged anymore. Like many of us, Hannah keeps holding her empty cup up to all these sources and she is left feeling even more discouraged. 

In 1 Samuel 1:9 we read that after a sacrificial meal at Shiloh, Hannah got up and went to pray. This phrase, “got up”, is communicating more than a posture. In other words, she's tired of feeling the way she feels. She doesn't want us to sit down and feel this way any longer. She gets up, and she goes. When you're discouraged, one of the most difficult things to do is to get up. Hannah goes to pray and she prays with some desperation verse 10. The verse says, “In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly.” And the word for crying bitterly here indicates like a presence of tears; it’s wailing and weeping. In fact, there are five Hebrew words in these handful of verses that describe the emotion that Hannah felt. All of which we would probably connect to or describe discouragement. We don't even have enough English words to translate those five words. So, there aren't enough words to capture the amount and degree of discouragement that Hannah feels. Some of you know this level of discouragement and the difficulty that comes with even communicating it. 

DISCUSSION/REFLECTION QUESTION: Who or what have you held your cup out to in the past for it to be filled? What was the result of looking to someone/something outside of God to fill your soul?