Fruitful Expectation

There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none. 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. Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb. Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. 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. Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”(1 Samuel 1: 1 - 8 NIV) There are several problems facing Hannah in this passage … First, in verse 2: He had two wives;one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none. That was a serious problem in Bible times. Not having children was considered a curse, while being fruitful was a blessing. For one thing they had no social security system. Your children were supposed to care for you in your old age.

For another thing Hannah couldn’t blame it on her husband’s infertility because her co-wife was being fruitful so she must have felt like, “It’s my problem. What’s wrong with me?”

Have you ever had a Hannah experience, of wondering, “What’s wrong with me, Lord?” Verse 5 shows us another issue Hannah was facing: “But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb.”

Did you spot that? The Lord had closed Hannah’s womb. Sometimes, things in our lives don’t go the way we planned simply because the thing we desire isn’t in the Lord’s plan for us, or when we want it isn’t the right time according to His plan for us. Sometimes, our lack of answer or lack of breakthrough is just the Lord’s sovereign hand at work in our lives.

If I’m honest, there are still times when I ask God why I had to wait ten years to fall pregnant, when we so badly wanted children … I still ask Him why I had those miscarriages, when everyone around me was bearing healthy full-term babies … and if I’m more honest, He has never answered me about those things. But I know that He is good … I know that my life is blessed the way it is, even though it didn’t work out the other way … I know that the Father in Heaven loves me … and so I trust Him fully with the parts of my life that don’t make sense to me … As Romans 8: 28 tells us: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose”. Verses 6 - 7 tell us about a third problem Hannah faced: “Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. 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.” Hannah’s adversary provoked her severely, to make her miserable … Can you imagine the things Peninnah said as the food was being distributed to her children: “Well, I guess she may as well have a double portion because she has no children. Tell us, Hannah, why is God cursing you like this? You must have done something wrong.”

Like Peninnah, who was Hannah's adversary, doesn't your adversary, the Devil, provoke you? The word Satan comes from the Hebrew word for “adversary”. Doesn't he tell you that you aren't good enough for God to bless you? Doesn't he point to areas in your life that are fruitless and accuse you of being barren in producing the fruits of the Holy Spirit? Sure he does! He does these things to make you miserable and unhappy; to take away your joy, peace, and love; and, to rob you of your relationship and victory, as a son or daughter of God! In John 8: 44, Jesus makes it clear who our adversary really is though … He tells us that the devil is “a liar, and the father of lies”. We should not, and we must not, listen to the lies of the deceiver! Instead, we need to read and meditate on the Word of God, so that we know and are continually reminded of who we truly are in Christ Jesus. Everyone, at some point in their life, has experienced trials and tribulations. I’m sure that some of our readers know about grief so deep that you don’t know what to do. Maybe you know about feeling like even God has forsaken you. Maybe you know about thinking that God should do something now ... you are at the breaking point and you want God to act. Maybe you know about the blessings of God seeming to go to someone else, and not to you. Maybe you know about looking at Peninnah get a new job with a 30% increase in pay while you barely have a job that you may get retrenched from at any time. Sometimes, these trials can feel so overwhelming, we think our prayers are just not getting through to God. Have you ever been there? I sure have. If you have a sense that there’s a “next” in your life, but it's just not happening, or if you've been waiting on the Lord for an answer to prayer that doesn’t seem to be coming, Hannah’s story is for you!

What does Hannah do in her situation? If we continue to read 1 Samuel 1: 9 – 20, we see Hannah's first response in verse 10: “Deeply distressed, she prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly.” In her sorrow and distress, Hannah turns to the only One who can redeem her otherwise hopeless situation—to Yahweh, the giver of life. 1 Peter 5: 7 tells us “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”

Adversity often drives people to their knees before the Lord. I believe that’s often the reason why the Lord allows us to go through difficult times in our lives – because those are the times that remind us of our desperate need for Him and for His power to work in our lives. The second thing we see in verses 15 - 16 is that Hannah prays until she knows that she has heard from God.

I watched an interview with Joe Niemand, the Christian singer, and when he was asked about his process of recording and releasing his music, he said this: “When I need to know what the Lord wants me to do, I make time to spend with Him and ask Him what to do, and He always answers me.” I think a lot of us get this wrong … firstly, too often we go to our friends, to Facebook, to anyone who will listen, and we tell, and we complain about our problem or our circumstance, and then we think we’ve prayed about it, but actually, we’ve never spoken to the Lord about it.

And the second thing that I think a lot of us get wrong is we pray so that God will hear our prayers, and not so that we will hear His answers. That’s why 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 17 tells us to “pray without ceasing” – because one quick prayer request doesn’t give us enough time to quiet our own mind and our self-will; one quick prayer doesn’t shut out the voice of the enemy, or quiet the sound of our phones, our emails, our social media accounts, our busyness and our distractions; and one quick prayer doesn’t give us enough time to hear the Holy Spirit prompt us to turn to a specific Scripture He wants to remind us of.

Most often, the Lord speaks to us in a still, small voice, not a yell, so we have to be quiet long enough to hear Him. Praying without ceasing is for OUR benefit, not God’s! The third thing Hannah does is seen in 1 Samuel 1: 18: “Oh, thank you, sir!” she exclaimed. Then she went back and began to eat again, and she was no longer sad." Hannah prays with confidence!

1 John 5: 14 - 15 tells us: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him." We cannot know when or how God will answer our prayers; but we can know one thing ... The answer is on its way, just like Samuel was on his way to Hannah, when she believed and trusted God.

Is Hannah pregnant yet when she walks away from the temple? No. Has she had an evening of intimacy with her husband yet? No. Is she happy? Yes! Why? Because she believes that God is going to answer her prayer and she instantly starts feeling better.

To be clear, God is not a genie in a bottle; His sovereignty cannot be reduced to “follow these 3 steps and you will get whatever you have asked for” … He will answer in His way, in His time, and sometimes His answer is “no” … but He is good, and He is God. The secret of effective prayer is to trust and depend on God, and not on yourself; pray with your whole heart; ask God to reveal His Word to you; then believe and trust that He will answer you according to His will! How do we keep going in this life when there are times that everything hurts and nothing seems to make sense? The Message paraphrase of Hebrews 12: 2 – 3 says this: “Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how He did it. Because He never lost sight of where He was headed — that exhilarating finish in and with God — He could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now He’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility He plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!” I love how this passage gives us the secret of being a person who keeps going ... the secret of being fruitful in our expectation. Jesus lived it so we could know it!

“Because He [Jesus] never lost sight of where He was headed . . . He could put up with anything along the way.” That’s why we must keep our eyes on Jesus and go over His story — the Bible — over and over again. This is how we get through this life. This is how we make sense of things that don’t make sense. This is how we can believe God is good when life doesn't feel good. This is how we can face hurt upon hurt, disappointment upon disappointment, and still run our race with oxygen filling our lungs, peace filling our minds, and joy filling our hearts. Don’t lose sight of where we are headed. Let’s keep our eyes on Jesus, who will show us how to make it through anything along the way. God is still looking for men and women like Hannah today: People with problems, who will take their problems to God in prayer according to His purpose, so that He gets all the glory and praise when He delivers us.