Year after year after year

I Samuel 1:7 So it went on year by year.

What is it that went on year by year?  There are several things that are either mentioned specifically or implied that happened regularly, yearly, for who knows how many years.  Elkanah, Samuel’s father, went to offer sacrifices year by year.  He cared about his family and was very sensitive to childless Hannah.  Year by year Hannah felt her pain of childlessness.  It was a pain that did not disappear in spite of her faithfulness along with Elkanah, year by year.  She was deeply distressed and weeping (see v. 10) year after year.  There was not an overnight answer to that distress.  It went on for many years, we don’t know how many.  The beauty of the story, however, lies in the fact that Elkanah and Hannah remained faithful to God through the pain of childless years and in God’s time, He answered Hannah’s prayer.  After Samuel was born, we read of another “year by year” when Hannah cam to see the child she gave back into God’s service, year by year.  She remained faithful through it all, year by year.  Sometimes we can see God in the mundane, the things that never seem to change even though we wish they would.  That's what Hannah learned.

Correctly focused

I Samuel 12:21 And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty.

I think the Lord is giving me a strong message this week to remind me to be fully committed to obeying, following and serving Him!  Yesterday I saw that in an earlier passage from I Samuel 7:3 and again today in this verse.  I must be diligent to follow Him.  I must be careful about what motivates me, cautious to work towards useful and beneficial objectives, not empty things without lasting value.  I must be careful to pray over every goal, every activity.  I do not want to pursue anything that is empty.  Not only must I be whole-hearted but I must be correctly focused.  With God’s help, I will be just that.

Whole-hearted devotion

I Samuel 7:3 If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you, and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only.

Once again I am reminded of the fact that God is looking to bless those who are willing to whole-heartedly follow Him.  He does not want partial loyalty or partial obedience.  God wants my full attention, my full determination to obey.  In return, He will protect and empower me as the last of this verse premises: “and he will deliver you…”  What more could I ask?!

Finding strength in God

I Samuel 30:6b …each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters.  But David found strength in the Lord his God.

All of David’s men, including himself, had suffered a severe blow because the Philistines had come to their town in their absence and kidnapped all the women and children.  It is only natural that the men were suffering emotionally.  But the contrast between David and his men is startling – as they were bitter and ready to take it out on David (see v.6a), this verse tells us that David had a totally opposite response to his distress.  He looked for, and found, strength in the Lord.  As a result, he was able to lead his men in a raid to get their loved ones back.  What would have happened otherwise?  Guessing from what we know from these verses, David would have been dead from stoning and without his leadership the men would have also been still without their wives and children.  It pays to turn to the Lord for strength in the midst of distress!

Friends helping friends

I Samuel 23:16 And Saul’s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God.

So many times I have felt like I couldn’t do anything useful or helpful when a friend was struggling.  But I am challenged and encouraged to see what Jonathan did for his best friend David.  There wasn’t much he could do physically.   After all, it was the king who was causing David’s distress, but what Jonathan did was something that would help David mentally and emotionally, and that would carry David further.  Jonathan helped David find strength in God.  That is what I want from my friends, and that what I want to be able to do for my friends in need.  I pray that I will be sensitive to others’ needs and find them and help them when they need it.  I say I pray that because, much to my dismay at times, I am not a sensitive as I want to be or need to be.

Don't keep mourning

I Samuel 16:1 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel?  Fill your horn with oil and be on your way.  I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem.  I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”

Samuel had obeyed God and anointed Saul to be king of Israel, so Saul held a special place in Samuel’s heart.  It was a sign of his obedience, at that time, but now he had to set aside what was in the past and move on to new steps of obedience.  He couldn’t dwell on what was already done and in this case, over with.  God had a new task that meant setting aside the past.  He had no idea that his new step of obedience would be opening the door to an even greater blessing for Israel.  He didn’t know that David would become the greatest king of all to come.  Samuel’s first step had to be putting aside his mourning over what had already happened and obeying his new directive from the Lord.  What a challenge for me, all these years later as well.  I cannot allow myself to become so comfortable with what is familiar to me that I miss moving ahead.  The older I get the more challenging that action becomes.  Although I have always prided myself in not being afraid to try new and different things, I find myself feeling more comfortable with everything staying the same, but in this story of Samuel I am reminded that I cannot dwell on my comfortable, known past.  I must forge ahead because God has more things for me to do, more things for me to learn, more things for me to experience.

Nothing can hinder the Lord

There are times when my mind plays tricks on me, and it seems to get worse the older I get!  So yesterday I thought to myself that it could not be true that I had missed almost a whole week of reading my chronological Bible reading schedule and I was already at the end of the book of I Samuel, but what I read and then journaled from yesterday was my reading that I planned to do a week from yesterday!  So here I am, back on track in the middle of I Samuel, where I "should" be for April 11!  But I must say, it was worth coming back to!

I Samuel 14:6b Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few.

Jonathan knew that the Philistine army was a force to be reckoned with—a large, strong enemy that could potentially eat that Israelite army alive, so to speak, if given the chance.  But Jonathan also knew that army had been defeated in the past by the Israelites.  That knowledge, coupled with his faith in God’s power, gave him the courage and faith to know this time would be no different.  If God wants to do something for me, then He can accomplish it, no matter how big or little, weak or strong, my enemy may be.  Nothing can stop Him.  What comfort!  I see shades of Philippians here ... "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,"

Discernment and encouragement

I Samuel 25:28 The Lord your God will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my lord because you fight the Lord’s battles.

The hand of God was on David from the very beginning of his life.  We can see that in hindsight, which is fairly easy for us.  But at the time David was living these experiences, the fact that Abigail could recognize God at work in David and his circumstances was very perceptive of her.  She was also very astute and able to say the right things at the right time.  I hope and pray that I will be wise and discerning like she was, and equally successful in recognizing and acknowledging God’s hand at work around me, even in the lives of people, and perhaps even be able to speak a word of encouragement to them, just as Abigail did to David in this story.

Not my strength

I Samuel 2:10 It is not by strength that one prevails…

This is from the prayer of Hannah, prayed when she brought Samuel to the temple to serve there.  She knew from her own experience that faith in God and prayer is the way to prevail over challenges.  She had agonized over her desire for a child and had not had any strength in herself t make that desire come to reality.  This is a good reminder to me to not work to make things happen… it is not my strength that accomplishes God’s purposes.  It is my faith in God’s strength that gives me strength and success.