April 07, 2021: SOAP #4143:  1Samuel 1-2; Psalm 66; 2Corinthians 7

SCRIPTURE:  1Samuel (NIV) 1:3 Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the LORD Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the LORD. …
6 And because the LORD had closed her womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. 7 This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat.
20 So, in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, “Because I asked the LORD for him.”

OBSERVATION: Hannah’s trial went on and on.  It lasted “year after year.”  Only God knows the number of prayers Hannah prayed for a child.  Yet she did not quit.  Where else could she go, but to the Lord?  She endured the provoking of her rival wife.  When Eli, the “man of God,” mistakenly thought she was drunk she refused to take offence.  She accepted the generalized blessing of the mistaken priest as a specific answer to her prayers!  She put off her sad countenance and sorrow and put on a happy face.  She had heard from God.  She would have a child!  

APPLICATION:  Persistence has great value with God.  When I desire something to the point that I refuse to give up, God sees that as faith.  It is tenacious faith.  It refuses to quit.  It refuses to let God go without answering.  It is like Moses going before God on behalf of the Israelites.  He could not visit a supermarket.  He could not order in a week’s supply of food.  Water was not available in personal size plastic bottles.  He had to go before God, and stay before God, until God answered! 

PRAYER:  Heavenly Father, you have placed many examples in the scriptures of people who refused to give up.  They held on in prayer until the answer came.  My faith does not have to be so strong, even as a small mustard seed, but it must be long enough to last until the answer comes.  The strength of my faith is not as important as the length of my faith.  Amen

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!