Empty Yourself into Acceptance by Practicing Hannah’s Prayer

“Change is a fact of life; acceptance is the key.”

Anonymous

It seems there’s a paradox in our culture: We are full to the point of being empty. Across America we are so full of junk culture— the garbage of our egos, of our material wants, physical desires and personal fears— that we are empty of spiritual treasure. There’s no room for it within our minds, or hearts or souls. We are preoccupied with the want of a perfect body, the lust for more money and all it can buy, and the quest for the most desirable love-life. We are filled with anger which we unleash through viewing violent movies or playing morbid video games. We are satiated with food, faced with ever-expanding waistlines and faltering into poor health. And we are heavily medicated with every imaginable prescription drug. We are living self-imposed toxic lives.

We all need a time-out to get our senses back and to realize that it’s time to detoxify ourselves. We need to dismiss what advertisers and peers are telling us. We can be Okay without their poisons. What we need more than anything is to face our barrenness. We can only do this by emptying ourselves out of all that has poisoned us. Let’s stop trying to control life. Let’s stop trying to be acceptable by the standards of others. Let’s think for ourselves.

It’s time we let go of all that is poisoning our systems. Once we let go of everything—social status, money, over-indulgence, fear, desires, wants, hate, material goods, all that we falsely believe we can’t live without—we are free to face our barrenness. We were all born barren, bereft of all ideas, dogmas, social understandings, material wants, etc. Since the day of our birth, however, we have been filling up with things.

From our first day of existence on earth, we have learned the things of other humans-- some good and some bad. Our parents taught us to love, but they may also have taught us to be prejudice against others or to even hate inherent parts of our own being. We learned to be fearful and to hate what we were afraid of facing. We learned to want what we cannot have and to be miserable about it. And we learned to medicate our misery.

So it’s time to examine ourselves; and to let go of our inner-toxins. Empty it all out. Throw out every dream, every hope, every desire, and every want that has ever made you miserable. Give them all to God and ask God to take them away. Give all of your brokenness to God. Accept that you are powerless, admit that you are tired of waging internal war against yourself and others; be still and empty. In your stillness and barrenness, accept life on God’s terms. Relax knowing you never need to struggle alone. Rest in the peacefulness of knowing your inner-turmoil is ending. Release every last impulse to control and allow God to paint a new portrait of your life.

We need to be like Hannah in 1 Samuel and like the Shunamite woman in 2 Kings. Hannah is a good example of how many of us live today. She is bitter, depressed and angry; all because she is unable to accept her own brokenness. Hannah is physically barren in the sense that she cannot conceive a child. Her barrenness has consumed her whole life. She is unable to think about anything else. Nothing in all of life matters. She no longer values her husband, her home, food or drink, or life itself. She refuses to be happy as long as she is childless. Her obsession with having that which she cannot have separates her from everyone and everything she loves until finally she can bear it no longer.

Deeply distressed Hannah goes to the Temple and empties herself out before God. She weeps bitterly and surrenders all of the poison inside her to God. We often need to do the same. Sometimes we are so bitter we need to get down on our hands and knees, beat our fists against the floor, swear and curse and release all of our venom into God’s hands. We need to weep bitterly like Hannah about the things we cannot have or change until we’ve washed them out of every pore of our being. Once we are empty—and no longer pretending to be in control—God can transform our venom into a healing salve that fills our souls with peace.

When Hannah left the temple, her “countenance was no longer sad.” She ate and drank again. She enjoyed the company of her husband, she treasured the comforts of her home and she valued her life; all because she let go and trusted that God would make all things right. She came to understand that God had a better plan for her life and that her desires were crowding her out of seeing and following that better plan. She could spiritually breathe again now that she had stopped smothering her soul with want of that which she could not have.

The Shunamite woman, who’s name we never know, was similar and yet quite different from Hannah. Like Hannah she was married and well to do—and barren. Unlike Hannah, she accepted her barrenness. She never complained about it or allowed it to dominate her life. She surrendered it to God and understood that God wanted what was best for her, and she accepted the blessings that came her way without demanding those things she was not meant to have in life. She accepted life on God’s terms and she learned to love as God loves.

One of the ways in which the Shunamite woman expresses her love is by “adopting” the prophet Elisha. She invites him to dine with her and her husband whenever he passes through town. And because he passes through often, she even has a room built onto her home and furnished expressly for Elisha. She makes her home his home, showing the greatest of hospitality. During one of his visits, Elisha desires to return her kindness and learns from a friend that she has always wanted, but has never been able to conceive, a child.

In all the time Elisha has known her, she has never once made mention of her desire to be a mother. She has never complained against God or to Elisha about her barrenness because she is filled with the grace of surrender and acceptance. Realizing this, Elisha promises her that within the coming year she will conceive and give birth to a child.

When we empty ourselves out and let go, miracles happen. Sometimes the miracles are beyond anything we could ever have imagined, and sometimes they end up being the very things that we had wanted so much. We can’t receive, however, until we are empty of all expectations and demands. Empty yourself into acceptance of life on God’s terms, allow God to fill you with spiritual treasures, relax, enjoy and allow your soul to shine!