Tuesday 13 Mar 2012

Tuesday Reading: 1 Samuel 1:9-18

Key Verse: 1 Samuel 1:14
14  And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee.

Devotion:
I am sorry that it has turned out three days in a row talking on this subject, but there is so much to learn from simply watching others, observing their actions and reactions and listening to what God is trying to do in spite of what we go through. I can remember sitting in a hotel a while back on holiday, listening to the various stories that other travellers told and wondering why they could not see what they were doing to themselves! But then I look back a bit further and realise that I too had been there and I still have much to learn. God continues to allow us to learn through others so that we do not have to experience all the heart-ache ourselves.

So let us not dwell on the loneliness or the heart-ache of not having children but rather on the reactions of the men around the house this time! Elkanah could not understand why Hannah felt so bad even when he was showing her more kindness that to his other wife. Is that just not typical of our reaction? ‘Are we not good enough then’ is something that we will band around long before we understand the situation! And then forget all about it after the situation has been resolved one way or the other. Ladies, beware… we just don’t get it until it is normally too late!

Hannah took her problem to exactly the right place – she took it to God and offloaded her burden there. Men do not always see the problem in the same light and will often question if it is a problem instead. To top it all, when she was in the temple, Eli the priest watched her and immediately assumed that she was in a drunken state because she did not do things in the normal and expected way! Trust a man to get it so wrong; but then that could be counted as normal for us. Without man ‘offhandish’ attitude to offset woman’s deep seated feelings we would probably both end up in a terrible place with no way out – we would dig ourselves a hole that was far to deep to fall into safely, never mind getting out!

But God, once again, was just and gracious. He heard Hannah’s prayers and allowed her to be comforted with children. Never give up on God because He is continuing to work through us all the time. When us men have an attitude that winds you women up, just try and imagine how much worse it could be if we were really winding each other up! God has given us different attitudes so we can work effectively together!

Points to Ponder:
Are you finding your workload too much?

Just how much support do you request from God?