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Summary, Part 5 (final) B. EVERY WIFE AND MOTHER NEEDS THE GRACE OF GOD TO BE HOPEFUL AMIDST HER TRIALS. We never need a perfect scenario, but a perfect God. 1. If you would experience help amidst your trials, fix your hope upon the gracious rule of a sovereign God. He knows what is best for you, dear mother. 2. If you would experience help amidst your trials, do not allow your challenges to make you bitter. To do so is to think you know better than God. Trials that don’t make you bitter can make you better. 3. If you would experience help amidst your trials, learn to nurture your hope by frequent, fervent, believing prayer. Our hope deflates when we are not in the habit of prayer. Prayer makes you an overcomer. 4. If you would experience hope amidst your trials, dedicate the object of your hope to the glory of God. Do your goals glorify God, or are they just for you? Do you serve God better with it or without it? Is your hope self-centered or God-centered?
Ian Migala (5/13/2013)
from Minneapolis, Minnesota
Summary, Part 4 III. ABIDING MESSAGES. A. EVERY WIFE AND MOTHER FACES PECULIAR DOMESTIC TRIALS ORDAINED BY GOD. 1. Do not wish for nor expect that you will be exempt from domestic trials or you will be sorely disappointed and sadly disillusioned. God had one Son without sin but none without suffering, and so will conform you more to Christ in your sufferings; they are tailor-made for you. 2. Expect that you will face trails from the limitations, sins, and failures of your husbands. “I do” must become “I will” because with God’s grace, “I can”. 3. Expect your children to bring difficult if not bitter trials into your home. 4. Do not seek to escape from your domestic trials. “’Till death do us part.” God has given you a husband to live with—to love and serve and perhaps children to be raised for His glory. 5. Because your trials may leave you feeling helpless, you must seek your hope not in different circumstances, but in the Lord. Circumstances and the people in them are never perfect, not even close, but God always is.
Ian Migala (5/13/2013)
from Minneapolis, Minnesota
Summary, Part 3 God rewards hope sometimes by giving us the desire of our heats and sometimes by granting us the grace of contentment in our situation: a win-win situation either way 2. She refused to retaliate against her rival, but instead resigned her to the Lord. She may have confessed her bitterness, but also asked for the grace to not respond in kind. Because hope is a grace, it is opposed to carnal self-vindication and retaliation. 3. She believed that God could change her present situation if He wished. She didn’t wish for Peninnah to be removed, but for her womb to be opened. Hannah teaches us that ‘hope can see Heaven through the thickest clouds’ (Thomas Brooks). B. HANNAH NURTURED HER HOPE BY FREQUENT, FERVENT, BELIEVING PRAYER. Hope is not a static grace but it makes people pray, even to the faith of moving the hand of God (PSALM 55:2, 42:11). Hannah teaches us that hope is kept alive by prayer—persevering, fervent, believing prayer. C. HANNAH DEDICATED THE OBJECT OF HER HOPE TO THE GLORY OF GOD. Samuel had a much better chance of a Godly life under someone like Hannah than near the priesthood of that day. Like God the Father, a mother who first gives her son to the Lord will give Him everything else.
Ian Migala (5/13/2013)
from Minneapolis, Minnesota
Summary, Part 2 2. Hannah’s husband failed to fully empathize with her plight. That started when he introduced Peninnah into their family. Violating God’s word in an attempt to thwart God’s will is a prescription for problems. 3. Hannah’s husband failed to fully take the spiritual lead in the home. It’s hard to imagine Elkanah corralling that situation. God ordered a one man-one woman marriage even before the Fall and especially after it. We see the sometimes irreversible consequences of domestic mistakes. Some scars must be borne all our days. C. HANNAH’S SEARCH FOR PASTORAL COMPASSION SEEMED HOPELESS. Eli’s response to her prayers could have only added to her frustration. Pastoral failure to empathize with one’s trials only deepens their grief. Failure to read a situation in full will often only exacerbate problems. II. HOW HANNAH’S PERSEVERING HOPE PREVAILED OVER PROVIDENTIAL CHALLENGES. Hannah showed her gratitude by naming her son Samuel (“heard by God”) and dedicated him to God. A. HANNAH FIXED HER HOPE UPON THE GRACIOUS RULE OF A SOVEREIGN GOD. 1. She did not allow dark providence to dim her hope, even though He never even promised her a child. Hope keeps us from self-pity and the truth of a beneficent God.
Ian Migala (5/13/2013)
from Minneapolis, Minnesota
Summary, Part 1 In 1 SAMUEL 1, Hannah used her hope in her trials. Every wife can learn from her hope, as there is no such thing as a perfect husband. I. THE PROVIDENTIAL CHALLENGES TO HANNAH’S HOPE. She was married to Elkanah, a worshipping man in an ungodly time. Though a Levite, he apparently was not a priest. A. HANNAH’S YEARNING FOR THE GIFT OF MOTHERHOOD SEEMED HOPELESS. Elkanah may have married Hannah first, then Peninnah when Hannah couldn’t give him children. In Hannah’s culture, barrenness came with a stigma, seen as God’s judgment. Women with sore providential trials are especially vulnerable to discouragement. B. HANNAH’S DESIRE FOR THE BLESSING OF A HAPPY MARRIAGE SEEMED HOPELESS. Imagine sharing your husband with another woman, whether literally or another in his heart. Coupled with her ongoing barrenness, one can only imagine Hannah’s misery. 1. Hannah’s husband’s marriage to another woman invited family strife. We should remember that whenever we challenge God’s order. Despite the double portion he granted Hannah (verse 5), there is no evidence in the text that Elkanah ever stood up to Peninnah for Hannah. Refusal to trust the Lord’s wisdom—doubting that He knows what is best for us—will surely lead to heartache, if not also to sin.