It Didn’t Kill Me

A lot of times in our lives we are faced with trials an obstacle that threaten us to end our very existence. We are so beaten down that we don’t how we are going to survive. You have tried to do things your way and the more you put your hands on it the more you fail.

So, the question is what obstacles are you facing that has you, so brow beaten? What tribulations are you facing that keeps you up in the mid night hour? What trials are you facing that keeps you pacing the floor at night? What has happened in your life to cause you to question God’s very existence, if he is real or not? What is it? Is it family problems? Is it yourself? Is it brokenness, maybe it’s relationships? Is it your bills, or sickness in the body? Is it a Job? What is it? Is it your past life? What has caused you to feel like giving up? What is it that had you in 2020, that had you feeling like that you were not going to make it. I think that you need to ask yourself what is your Obstacle.

If we were to look at the text, we’ll see that this women Hannah was a woman of prayer. But she had what many of us would call " a raw deal in life". But what I love about her is that she did not settle for it. She refused to stay in the shape that she was in, so she did something about it.

What did she do Pastor? She went after God. She poured her heart out to Him, and He filled her and met her desire.

So, the first thing that I want to tell you this morning is don’t settle for the oke-doke, don’t be punked by the devil and his little imps. And whatever you do please don’t allow the past to hold you captive from your future.

Let’s look at Hannah’s. Hannah’s name means "grace". And Grace is defined as undeserved, unmerited, and an unearned love and the favor of God towards man as a sinner. So, when we look at her story, we will see that her experience was characterized by grace, both in terms of the favor she found with God, as well as the way in which she dealt with her situation.

When I look at Hannah I see that Hannah represent a class of women, those who deeply long to have children of their own; but for some reason, known or unknown, they are unable to do so. But we also view Hannah as a model mother, and with good reason.

Look at what she promised the Lord even before she was impregnated. She said Lord if you give me a child and male child, I’ll give him back to you. So, the Word teaches us that at her son’s birth, she dedicated her son Samuel to the Lord’s work, and when the time came, she kept her promise and left him in the temple to be prepared for a life of ministry unto the Lord. But let’s not forget that her path was not an easy one. Noticed that she was not a woman without troubles. But also noticed that her troubles didn’t kill her.

The biggest problem for Hannah was simply that she could not give birth, and within the culture that she lived, that was an extremely heavy burden to bear, because all women wanted a man child because it was said that the messiah would come through the seed of a woman.

To make matters even worse, she lived during a time when polygamy was acceptable, and she found herself despised by another woman, especially by one woman in particular named Peninnah, the other wife of her husband, Elkanah. And apparently Peninnah had no trouble getting pregnant, but the problem was that Peninnah, was cruel and she taunted of Hannah.

Now know that Peninnah’s name meant Venomous or coral. She was spiteful, hateful, hostile and full of Malice. She was an enemy or adversary toward Hannah. Her attitude clearly lived up to her name. The bible tells us that Elkanah loved Hannah but it doesn’t say that he necessarily loved Peninnah and this could have been the reason why she took every opportunity to harass, pester and badger Hannah about not being able to give birth.

It could have been that this woman was full of resentment, jealousy, anger and annoyance by the fact that Elkanah loved Hannah more than he did her. So, it seems as thou Penniah sat out to make Hannah’s life a living nightmare, Hannah suffered much mental and physical anguish under Penniah’s hand. And we know this because the bible says that Hannah wept and would not eat.