People Problems

I Samuel 1:5-6,15 “But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion; for he loved Hannah: but the LORD had shut up her womb. And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb. . . . And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit . . . [I] have poured out my soul before the LORD.”

In I Samuel chapter one, I am struck with the fact that Hannah was a woman of prayer. Sometime, go back and read I Samuel 1 yourself and count all the references to Hannah praying-it is astounding! But the chapter is not only about Hannah’s prayer life, but it is also the story of a three-parent home. My heart goes out to someone in a single-parent home because I know it is difficult; but can you imagine a three-parent home? Instead of not having enough, the difficulty was having too much!

We are told that God had “shut up [Hannah’s] womb.” To make matters worse, the other wife in the home is called “her adversary.” Hannah’s husband was obviously sympathetic to her due to the fact that she could have no children, but he was the one who took a second wife!

I just heard about a story from a town in Pennsylvania where an old farmer left his church $2 million. He was seventy-one years old, lived in a mobile trailer, and was part of a small church in his town. He was the last “place” anyone in that church would have looked for money, yet he died and left his church $2 million!

Who could Hannah have gone to? She could have appealed to her authority (husband). She could have confronted her peer-in all seriousness, she could have given her adversary a piece of her mind or her fist! But in I Samuel 1, you find that Hannah went to God about it.

Hannah had a husband who did nothing to fix the problem, although he was sympathetic. She had an antagonist who was making her life miserable. But everything and everybody changed when Hannah prayed. Today, don’t leave God out of your people problems.