Trusting God: Hannah's Journey of Faith and Prayer
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Sermon Clips
Hannah's life reminds us of this. It's a heartbreaking situation. On several, many layers, multiple layers. First of all, she's in a polygamous marriage that is going on that is causing much trouble. Now, contrary to what the world is saying, or those who don't believe in God always try to poke holes in Christianity, say, look at all the polygamy in the Bible. Nowhere in scripture does God promote, [00:54:28] (26 seconds)
condone, or say this is a good thing. God has been consistent from beginning to end that marriage is between one husband, one wife, forever in a covenant marriage. But we see, unfortunately, that his people have not followed that. And as we see, every time and every instance, there is shame, there is problems, there is issues. And so, unfortunately, she is right in the middle of one of these marriages. Secondly, it's compounded because she is barren. She is not able to conceive. [00:54:56] (34 seconds)
Now, in those days in an agrarian society, it is having that child to care for. And it's sort of like an ancient 401k that, as a mother, has a son to provide for her when she is older and cannot work. And especially in this type of marriage, when there's two wives, there is an understanding of each wife's children must care for her as she gets older. And so this barrenness is culturally hard, but all of us would say we know struggling personally hard. [00:55:30] (39 seconds)
This is a moment for me to say to some of you who are here, maybe you who are women who have not been able to conceive, or maybe you're a husband, or maybe you know someone, you know and have experienced this type of pain that Hannah has gone through. Friend, we feel you and hear you and understand this deep pain that you have. And we know that this is not something against you, that you can be encouraged, that God loves you, even through this. But you see and understand the issue that Hannah was going through. To make matters worse, Penaniah, her husband's other wife, mocks her cruelly. [00:56:09] (47 seconds)
But what does Hannah do? Does she give up in the midst of the storm? Does she? Does she shut down? No, she goes to God and trusts Him. She trusts in God, the one sovereign over these things. [00:57:56] (19 seconds)
The phrase here is weird. Right in the midst of this, there's this revealing in verse 5 that the Lord had kept her conceiving. Now, normally we'd read this and we'd say, well, this is cruel, but it's actually meant for us to point us with hope. Hope that God is actually over this situation. It's not outside of His control. It's not something that's outside of what He can do. It is actually God is over this situation that God is not asleep at the wheel. So He is surely, in control. [00:58:37] (48 seconds)
And this is how Hannah saw her life. She wasn't desperate. She was, she was, she came to a point that she knew that the only one who could answer and know what she was going through was the one who was in charge. That was the God of the universe. [00:59:06] (23 seconds)
And as we see, as she trusted God in faith, she knew that her story was His story. She knew that He was working things out. And in this, we know because we can read ahead and we can know that eventually that her son Samuel would grow up to be the prophet who anointed Israel's first kings. [00:59:46] (21 seconds)
That she could, she could worship and she could proclaim and she could praise. Even then, not knowing what the end of her story was, she knew God was in control. [01:00:21] (14 seconds)
Hope even in those days was that even the hopeless woman who was out without child, if their heart was with God, it was never without hope. [01:00:59] (13 seconds)
Friends, in whatever situation, that we might be in, we're never without hope. Hallelujah! [01:01:36] (7 seconds)
Because God is in control. In our own lives, we may never fully understand how God is working our trials, but we can trust that He is holy, He is merciful, and He is sovereign. [01:01:47] (11 seconds)
In the midst of our tangled, troubled times, that we can rest and be known that God is over our lives. [01:02:07] (10 seconds)
Ask a question about this sermon
condone, or say this is a good thing. God has been consistent from beginning to end that marriage is between one husband, one wife, forever in a covenant marriage. But we see, unfortunately, that his people have not followed that. And as we see, every time and every instance, there is shame, there is problems, there is issues. And so, unfortunately, she is right in the middle of one of these marriages. Secondly, it's compounded because she is barren. She is not able to conceive. [00:54:56] (34 seconds)
Now, in those days in an agrarian society, it is having that child to care for. And it's sort of like an ancient 401k that, as a mother, has a son to provide for her when she is older and cannot work. And especially in this type of marriage, when there's two wives, there is an understanding of each wife's children must care for her as she gets older. And so this barrenness is culturally hard, but all of us would say we know struggling personally hard. [00:55:30] (39 seconds)
This is a moment for me to say to some of you who are here, maybe you who are women who have not been able to conceive, or maybe you're a husband, or maybe you know someone, you know and have experienced this type of pain that Hannah has gone through. Friend, we feel you and hear you and understand this deep pain that you have. And we know that this is not something against you, that you can be encouraged, that God loves you, even through this. But you see and understand the issue that Hannah was going through. To make matters worse, Penaniah, her husband's other wife, mocks her cruelly. [00:56:09] (47 seconds)
But what does Hannah do? Does she give up in the midst of the storm? Does she? Does she shut down? No, she goes to God and trusts Him. She trusts in God, the one sovereign over these things. [00:57:56] (19 seconds)
The phrase here is weird. Right in the midst of this, there's this revealing in verse 5 that the Lord had kept her conceiving. Now, normally we'd read this and we'd say, well, this is cruel, but it's actually meant for us to point us with hope. Hope that God is actually over this situation. It's not outside of His control. It's not something that's outside of what He can do. It is actually God is over this situation that God is not asleep at the wheel. So He is surely, in control. [00:58:37] (48 seconds)
And this is how Hannah saw her life. She wasn't desperate. She was, she was, she came to a point that she knew that the only one who could answer and know what she was going through was the one who was in charge. That was the God of the universe. [00:59:06] (23 seconds)
And as we see, as she trusted God in faith, she knew that her story was His story. She knew that He was working things out. And in this, we know because we can read ahead and we can know that eventually that her son Samuel would grow up to be the prophet who anointed Israel's first kings. [00:59:46] (21 seconds)
That she could, she could worship and she could proclaim and she could praise. Even then, not knowing what the end of her story was, she knew God was in control. [01:00:21] (14 seconds)
Hope even in those days was that even the hopeless woman who was out without child, if their heart was with God, it was never without hope. [01:00:59] (13 seconds)
Friends, in whatever situation, that we might be in, we're never without hope. Hallelujah! [01:01:36] (7 seconds)
Because God is in control. In our own lives, we may never fully understand how God is working our trials, but we can trust that He is holy, He is merciful, and He is sovereign. [01:01:47] (11 seconds)
In the midst of our tangled, troubled times, that we can rest and be known that God is over our lives. [01:02:07] (10 seconds)
Chatbot
-
I'm an AI bot trained specifically on the sermon from Dec 08, 2024. Do you have any questions about it?