GLR - Hannah

by Pastor Alan Hewitt

Point 1
Don't let your problems keep you from church!

Hannah
- Weep
- Provocation
- Greatly troubled
- Irritated
- Downhearted
- Bitterness
- Misery
- Anguish

She still goes to church

- Build customs into our lives
- If you don't build daily routine in your spiritual devotion, you lose out
- Hannah build customs in her life

1 Samuel 1:1-9
There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite[a] 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. 2 He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none. 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. 4 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. 5 But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb. 6 Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s 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. 8 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?” 9 Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s house.


- Even though Hannah had shattered dreams she still turn up for worship

Point 2
Don't let others write your story!

- eg : Elkanah, Peninnah
- You will meet people in your life who wants to write your story
- They will want our failures to be our final
- They will want to gain at our disadvantages
- "Hannah stood up"
- Hannah wept much and prayed
- Prayer is essential because prayer invites God to write our story
- We can be in God's presence but disconnected and distracted, and miss the moment

Point 3
Don't let religion keep you from God's blessings!

- Hannah replied not so my lord, I have not been drinking wine or beer: I was pouring out my soul to the lord ...
- She replied with respect, the office of Eli not Eli as a person even though Eli comment was offensive

Point 4
You must not let time blind you to God's activity!

1 Samuel 1:19
Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the Lord and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her.


- Every time you respond to altar call, the lord remembers
- Everything looks exactly the same after altar call but what change everything was Hannah "stood up"
- Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning
- Our story never ends in the night
- Samuel become the first prophet after the judges era of Israel