Learn How To Ask | Pastor Norflette Shumake

Aug 23, 2026

Devotional

Sermon Summary

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

66s
#KeepShowingUp
“Showing up. Instead, Instead, she she kept kept showing up. Instead, she kept showing up. Sometimes faith isn't shouting. Sometimes faith is simply making the trip to Shiloh one more time. Sometimes faith is just showing up, Showing up. Showing up. Showing up. Year after year. No answers, but she asked anyway. Year after year in irritant and ups, but she asked anyway. Year after year, she just showed up. Why? Because asking a foundation is just simply asking. In fact, the scripture says it like, Jesus Jesus says, ask and you receive. The actual rendering is keep asking. seeking. knocking. In other words, keep showing.”
67s
#BroughtNear
“The greatest miracle is that those who were once far away have been brought near, on the outside have been brought near. The greatest miracle pauses, but now in Christ, Jesus, you have once you were far off have been brought near by the blood by the blood by the blood of Christ. There was a time that we had no claim of God, no covenant, no promises, no hope, no father to cry out to. We were simply burned, simply spiritually dead. We were we were merely waiting outside the tabernacle. We were outside the family, outside the covenant, outside the promise of God. But Jesus did for us what we can never do for ourselves. He became the answer before we ever learned how to ask. The one Hannah prayed to became flesh. The one who hurt Hannah's tears would one day shed his own. The son who was given in the in answer to a mother's prayer would point us to the greater son given by the father for the salvation of the world.”
67s
#GodMakesWay
“Perhaps today, maybe some of us are feeling a little helpless or a little hopeless. Like the woman with the issue of blood, you spent everything you had trying to fix what no one could heal. Though Hannah was not ceremony unclean, she likely felt like an outsider standing on the outside while everybody else is flourishing. I don't know if y'all ever have moments like that. We think this is the worst place to be. Yet Yahweh, yet God always does his greatest work in places that appear hopeless. He makes ways where there are no ways. He brings streams into depth. He calls rivers to flow through wilderness places. He delights in bringing life where everyone else has concluded death has won. Sometimes God allows us to arrive at the end of ourselves so we can discover the beginning of his sufficiency.”
54s
#GodRemembers
“There's one more thing I I want you to notice in the text. The text says, and the Lord remembered Hannah. And the Lord remembered Hannah. And the Lord remembered Hannah. The phrase doesn't mean God had forgotten her. It means god is acting according to his covenant love. He remembered Noah. He remembered Abraham. He remembered Rachel, and he remembered Hannah. And today, as as as we're talking, I want us to think about I want us to think about the communion table. Because at the table, we're reminded that God remembered us. The greatest miracle wasn't Hannah's barren womb was open. The greatest miracle is that our dead hearts have been made alive in Christ.”
68s
#FaithBeforeProof
“Hannah believed that the Lord will intervene. Verse 20 says, God answers her request. other words, Hannah Hannah's prayer assumes that Yahweh sees, hears, and acts. In other words, her faith begins to replace despair even before the answer arrives. Wait. Y'all y'all gotta you you gotta see this now. Uh-huh. Even before the answer arrived, her face was changed. She had no she had no physical proof, but faith is the substance of things and the evidence of things. Her face changed.”
42s
#PrayerIsRelationship
“One of the first foundations of biblical asking is relationship. Jill, you're speaking. We ask because we know the one we're we're asking. Jesus didn't teach us to begin our prayers with almighty creator. He taught us to pray our father. He's talking about relationship. Relationship. See, children ask differently than strangers. because they're more deserving, but because they know whose table they belong to.”
84s
#NeedBuildsCourage
“You know, there's also this beautiful thing too in terms of relation. Sometimes, the scriptures will reveal that, need becomes a bridge to relationships. The other day I was in Meyer, and I was looking for some ground cardamom. That's right. Ground cardamom. And I was walking through the store, and a young man stopped me. He said, excuse me, sir. I I just got out of jail. Would you be willing to help me buy a pack of socks or some underwear so I can get a few other things I need? I I I didn't know him. He didn't know me. There was no relationship. But his need gave him courage. His humility conquered the awkwardness. He had to reach to the end of his sufficiency. In other words, he knew he could meet his need on his own. So in a public place, he did something many of us struggle to do, he asked. Sometimes desperation will give us courage that pride never will. Sometimes the greatest obstacle isn't God's willingness to give, it's our unwillingness to admit we need.”
64s
#GraceShowsUp
“I don't know if you've ever experienced this in your life where somebody said you blessed and you favored and and God's gracious to you, but it don't feel like it, it don't look like it. Only just a few of us. There are moments in your life that your circumstance competes with your identity. Who you are and what's happening to you seem like they're in discord or they seem like they're in competition. But here's the thing about grace. Here's the thing about favor. I don't know if you know this, but, grace keeps showing up. His favor keeps showing up. Hannah keeps showing up.”
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