This Sunday, Pastor Joaquin preached a message out of 1 Samuel 1. We looked at the life of Hannah, a woman who didn’t have a promise to cling to, just a problem she couldn’t control.
1 Samuel 1:18
Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.
1) When it’s out of your control, it’s not out of God’s hands.
Hannah had a problem she didn’t choose, a problem she didn’t cause, and a problem she couldn’t control. Her womb was closed, but not by the enemy.
1 Samuel 1:5
'…though the Lord had closed her womb.’”
This wasn’t punishment, it was positioning. Sometimes we rebuke the devil when it’s God allowing the storm not to destroy you, but to direct you.
2) Bitterness doesn’t make it better.
Sometimes the hardest part of waiting is the watching. Watching others receive what you’ve been praying for. Watching someone else’s testimony while you’re still stuck in the middle of your test. That’s when bitterness creeps in. But Hannah didn’t let her pain poison her perspective.
Even though Peninnah mocked her year after year, not just at home, but the house of the LORD. Hannah didn’t retaliate. She didn’t throw shade. She stayed silent and surrendered. Bitterness won’t fix what only God can restore. But pouring it out in His presence will.
3) It’s in His presence where the broken are met and the breakthrough begins.
Hannah left the altar with no promise. No guarantee. No son in her arms. But her face was no longer sad. Why? Because a breakthrough doesn’t begin when God gives us what we want. A breakthrough begins when we finally give God all of ourselves.
In his presence, God shifted her heart before ever opening up her womb. In the Presence of God, we are undone and remade. Our will begins to align itself with his, and he even changes the way that we pray.
1 Samuel 1:11
And she vowed a vow and said, “O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life...
Samuel wasn’t just her miracle; Samuel was God’s answer for a nation!
