Baggage

1 Samuel 1:1-8

I hope you had an enjoyable Mother’s Day weekend. I am excited to begin a new teaching series with you this week. One that I am very passionate about as well as hopeful that will be helpful for you. Each year I try to do a “Hall of Heroes” series. This year we are looking at  woman heroes of faith. We begin our study with not only a hero of faith, but also an amazing mother in and of her own right. The story of Hannah is found in the opening chapter of the book of 1st Samuel. In our reading today, we are introduced to a women who’s life was not easy going. Hannah carried a decent amount of “baggage” in her life. Married to a man named Elkanah, Hannah is the older of two wives in her household. If this were not bad enough, Hannah has been unable to conceive while the ‘younger wife’ has no trouble at all bearing children for their husband. In the ancient near eastern culture, a woman’s ability to provide male was the most important thing she could do. I wish I could tell you the “bad news” stopped there, but you can see in the text, every time the family travel and worship the Lord, her “rival” the younger wife would provoke her until she wept and refused to eat! If the story of Hannah starts anywhere, it begins with a woman who is fighting in her personal life just to keep her head about water! You wouldn’t think that this is the beginning of the story of a heroine of faith, but it is... and I think that in and of itself offers us a powerful lesson. Our story is only where we started, or where we are now. God is still working in, around, and through us every day we are on this earth. 

Prayer: 

Heavenly Father, please help me to have faith like Hannah. I certainly feel like my life is out of control and more than I can handle at times. Please help me to find my strength in You and not in my circumstances. Thank You Lord, Amen. 

Reflection: 

What “baggage” does your life have now? Does it drive to closer to or further from the Lord?