From Rock Bottom to Overflowing: Hannah and Jabez

Hannah and Jabez represent opposite ends of our spiritual journey. Hannah prayed from rock bottom—barren, misunderstood, and in deep anguish. Her story teaches us that God can handle our most wrecked emotions and shows us what surrender truly looks like.

The Prayer of Jabez is a bold prayer that has inspired believers for millennia. Jabez approached God with holy audacity. And scripture simply states: "God granted his request." This mic-drop moment confirms Heaven moves in response to our prayers.

What makes these prayers so powerful is their complementary nature—together they give us a complete blueprint for approaching God in every season. Whether you're in a Hannah season or a Jabez season, this episode will equip you with biblical language for your deepest needs.

Discover how these ancient prayers can become your own, and watch how God transforms both your mindset and your circumstances. What would happen if you dared to pray like Hannah and Jabez today?

Chapters

• 0:00 Podcast Introduction
• 1:27 Hannah's Story of Raw Authenticity
• 4:09 Prayer Changes Mindset Before Circumstances
• 7:42 The Bold Prayer of Jabez
• 12:08 Different Prayers, Same Faithful God
• 14:20 Closing Prayer and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 0:06

Ciao and welcome to Life Out Loud. I am your host, desiree Melfi-Bozzo. We are going to use this space to share experiences and help you find lasting, unshakable, unwavering, unmessable. With joy and gratitude, we're going to be throwing around encouragement a little bit like confetti, and giving you support to live your very best life. Ciao, friends, welcome to episode five of season four of the Life Out Loud podcast. I'm the creator of this podcast and your host, desiree Melfi Bozzo.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 0:42

This season, you might know, we're focusing on prayers in scripture that have shaped the world. In this episode, we're going to talk about two prayers that I think you must know to get you through life. Hopefully, at the end of it you'll think you must know them too the prayers of Hannah and the prayer of Jabez. So Hannah's prayers were heartfelt and Jabez's prayer was about as bold as they come. All right, they're both important in their own right to have a place in our prayer life. I like to think of this episode as going from rock bottom to overflowing Both positions. We will 100% find ourselves in life a time or few right. So let's start off with our girl, hannah. Her prayer we can find in 1 Samuel 1 and 2, hannah was barren, which means she couldn't have children and in the day and age in which Hannah lived, this was hugely problematic. Which Hannah lived, this was hugely problematic. Living in that time there was a value that was tied to the ability for a woman to have children. Hannah was taunted and Hannah was misunderstood. Her soul was in deep anguish in this time. I love Hannah's story because A I relate to the infertility journey, which sucks. But also I love Hannah's story because she didn't fake the composure for the gram right, the gram of the ancient world. She didn't pretend to have it all together in a perfectly crafted reel. She didn't pretend that everything was great. She wept and prayed and she was real. There was a raw authenticity about Hannah that I completely admire. I don't know about you, but I do this weird thing where I imagine what heaven might be like and like having coffee with all the greats, like I can't wait to sit down and enjoy a cafe latte with my girl Hannah up in heaven and just talk to her about her journey and what it must have been like.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 3:01

Hannah poured out her soul to God in 1 Samuel, in verse 11, we see her make this vow in her prayer and she tells God if you give me a son, I will give him back to you, and I think it's really important to point out here. Hannah wasn't bargaining, she was completely surrendering all of it. She knew if God blessed her with a child, it wasn't hers to keep. It was God from the very beginning right, it was his, much like everything on this side of heaven is. In verse 17 and 18, we see a shift in Hannah because of her prayer. In verse 17, it reads Eli the priest answered Go in peace and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him. Verse 18, she said May your servant find favor in your eyes. Then she went on her way and ate something and her face was no longer downcast my loves. Prayer changes everything. Nothing changed in Hannah's circumstance. Like you have to know that the circumstance didn't change. Hannah was still not pregnant, hannah still hadn't bore a child, but Her prayer changed her mindset. It didn't change the circumstance right away and maybe it changed it never for some of us but it changes the mindset and the countenance of ourselves in an instant. This is powerful. Prayer is powerful. In verse 20, we see that Hannah did become pregnant and she gave birth to a son. She dedicated him to the Lord, just as she had said. She lived out obedience In verses 24 to 28,. She fulfilled her vow that she made to God.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 5:02

In 1 Samuel 2, verses 1 through 10, we see another prayer of Hannah, a prayer of thanks and praise to God, and in this she declares the greatness of God, she exalts him and eloquently proclaims that he is the source of everything. I love Hannah's story because it shows us the anguish that this life can hold, anguish that sometimes we forget exists when we look at the highlight reels of everyone's lives. It shows us how our God shows up to hold the anguish so we don't have to Friends. God designed us, which means he can handle the raw and wrecked emotions of humanity. His shoulders are big enough to carry it. I wonder if Hannah ever imagined that her pain, thousands of years later, would become the blueprint for someone else's prayer. Our girl Hannah shows us how to be authentic, how to surrender, what faith in action looks like. She was a model of holy transformation, god changing her from the inside out, having her spirit encouraged before her circumstances ever changed, and in scripture she gave us a beautiful prayer of worship for God. Hannah shows us God is faithful. He's faithful today just as he was over 3000 years ago.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 6:47

Sweet listeners, I hope her story and her prayers that you can learn to pour out your heart to God, to trust him and to praise him like Hannah did. Next time your heart's heavy, next time grief or rock bottom hit my loves, remember Hannah, be encouraged and for God's sakes literally for God's sakes pray. So we've seen the heartache of Hannah, we've seen the prayers of heartache and grief and rock bottom. I want to make a 180 degree pivot to the other side of life, a life of overflowing with a bold and unapologetic ask the prayer of a little known man named Jabez. I love this prayer. I've said it since I was a little girl. It was written on my heart, probably at the ages I'm doing the math, I would say about 8 to 10. I learned the prayer and I memorized it, and I have recited it countless times over the years, countless times over the years. It is beautiful.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 8:08

We find it nestled in 1 Chronicles 4-10. It's just one tiny little verse. It changes everything though. So 1 Chronicles 4, verse 10 says Jebus cried out to the God of Israel oh, that you would bless me, indeed, and enlarge my territory, that you would bless me, indeed, and enlarge my territory. Let your hand be with me and keep me from harm, so that I will be free from pain. And God granted his request. Jabez came to the Lord full of faith, believing. Believing God wanted to bless him.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 8:44

I think this is important to point out, because how many times have we stayed away from the throne of grace because we felt unworthy of God's best blessing? Asking for a friend here, I'm the friend, it's me right. How many times have we not prayed because we're like oh, I don't deserve that. What Are you crazy? Are you kidding me? That's crazy talk. The next thing Jabez does is he asks for an enlarged territory. This isn't about physical land, okay. This is about leadership, influence, opportunities and reach. How many times have we believed in our humanity that we needed to pray for? I don't know? Just enough. Just enough to get by. Just a little bit, right? I don't want to bug God. Just give me just a little bit God. What if we began infusing this idea of broad impact in our prayers, loves? We serve a God of more than enough, abundance and overflowing. We can show up boldly with bold prayers and bold requests to him.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 10:06

Jabez asks for God's hand to be with him because he knew he needed God's presence, guidance and strength to carry forth the blessing. God's blessing without God in the picture is going to crush us. Just in case you didn't know that, I believe that is by design. I don't know about you but if I can be honest, I don't want to carry any blessing he gives me without him in the center. I don't want to be in my marriage without God. I don't want to raise our son without God. I don't want to walk in a classroom and teach without God. I don't want to work with clients without God. I want and need his hand in every area of my life. I don't know about you, but for me the risk of doing life without God in the center is entirely too risky. In the center is entirely too risky.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 11:11

Jabez asks God to keep him from harm so that he will be free from pain. This is a deeply personal part of Jabez's prayer and I think it has to do with breaking the generational things in life. So Jabez's very name actually means pain. He didn't choose this label and chances are you're sitting there in a life with labels that you didn't choose either. This part of the prayer is about breaking free from a painful, oppressing, trauma-filled identity. Jabez is telling God I want to break the cycle and not pass on what I was born into. Friends, we can pray our way into new storylines. Nothing is too big for God that I can promise you, that I can bet my life on, and I don't bet.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 12:09

The last five words of verse 10 are basically heaven dropping the mic. And God granted his request Boom, mic drop. All the angels cheered. These words confirmed that heaven moved in response to one man's prayer Out of all of scripture, one little verse, one little prayer heaven moved. These words confirm that our God hears, our god responds and our god has the power to write new endings.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 12:53

My loves I'm, if you're listening today. My question for you is will you dare to believe that your past doesn't have to equal your future? And and with that one I guess I have a follow-up question Will you dare to ask, like Jabez did? And both of those questions are truly dares because they take so much courage and you will be blown away in the best way possible by what you find on the other side of those questions. So those are the stories of two prayers, of Hannah and Tebez two very different people with two very different cries to heaven one in anguish and one in boldness. God heard both of them and God answered both of them. And God answered both of them. My loves, I want you to hear me when I say that God is not limited by our past, he's not limited by our pain, and he surely is not limited by our ask. We can bring it all to him today. He's got you.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 14:12

I want to end this episode praying over you, a prayer that was inspired by Hannah and Jabez. I pray these words meet you where you need them the most, them the most Sovereign. God, we come before you today with our hearts wide open, some like Hannah's and some like Jabez's, and some somewhere in between, for the sweet soul who showed up here in sorrow or grief, with a heavy heart, with worries on their mind. Remind them that you hear all prayers For the sweet soul who showed up here unsure, stuck, afraid. Help them to borrow Jebez's courage. Bless us indeed, father, not with just enough for our needs, but for more than enough to bless others. Enlarge our territory on this side of heaven, and not just in a physical sense, but emotionally and spiritually too. God, help us live in ways that are bigger than us. Let your hand be on us every step, every mile, every journey, keep us from harm, help us to break every limitation and chain that binds us. And Jesus is so good, so amazing, never-ending name. We pray all of this Amen, my loves.

Desireé Melfi Bozzo: 15:47

I hope you enjoyed this episode. You know to come back next time we're going to throw more encouragement and more scripture around like confetti. Be careful if you get too close, you are totally going to get it all over you and remember there's always something to be grateful for. Ciao. Thank you for joining me, desiree Melfi Bozzo, for this episode of Life Out Loud. I would love to hear from you. Leave me a comment, tell me what topics you want to talk about and how you take your coffee. If you enjoyed what you heard, text a friend the link, share it on social media. Or if you're interested in becoming a supporter, beep up over to my webpage, lifeoutloudme, and sponsor a cup of coffee that keeps this podcast fueled. Until next time, sweet listeners.