1 Samuel 1:15-19: in context

Hannah, childless and grieving, has been praying at the sanctuary so fervently, her lips moving without sound, that the priest Eli mistakes her for drunk. She explains: I am a woman troubled in spirit; I have not been drinking, but pouring out my soul before the LORD, speaking out of my great anguish. Eli answers, go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant your petition. And Hannah goes her way; she eats, and her face is no longer sad. The next morning they worship and return home, and in time the LORD remembers her.

The moment worth noticing is what happens to Hannah after she prays: she went her way, and ate, and her face was no longer sad. Nothing in her circumstances had yet changed; she was still childless, and the answer, when it came, was still in the future. But her sadness lifted, her countenance changed, and she was able to eat, simply because she had poured out her soul to God and left the matter with him. The peace came not from the problem being solved but from having genuinely handed it over. Hannah had carried her grief a long time, and here she finally poured it all out before the LORD, held nothing back, spoke out of the depth of her anguish; and having done so, she was at peace, before anything had changed. There is a lesson here about the peace that honest, pouring-out prayer can give. We often think we cannot be at peace until our situation changes, until the problem is solved and the answer comes. Hannah shows another way: to pour out the whole of our grief and anxiety before God, to unburden ourselves completely to him, and to receive peace not because the trouble is gone but because we have truly given it to him. The burden set down before God does not always change the circumstances at once, but it lifts the heart. Hannah walked away from her prayer with her face no longer sad, though she was still childless, because she had cast her care on the God who cares for her. That peace, given before the answer, is one of prayer's real gifts.

When I am weighed down by a grief or anxiety, do I pour it out fully to God and leave it with him, receiving the peace that comes from having genuinely handed it over, or do I hold my burden, believing I cannot be at peace until my circumstances change?