THIS IS JUST YOUR NOT YET SEASON

This is not forever.

This is just your “not yet” season.

Let’s check out Hannah really quick. So, In I Samuel 1:1-28, we learn that Elkanah, Hannah’s husband, was also married to Peninnah (we’ll call her Mrs. P), and they lived in the mountains of Ephraim (yeah, literally in the middle of nowhere). And off the bat, we learn that God closed Hannah’s womb, while Mrs. P consistently emotionally and verbally abused her because Hannah was barren. So, Hannah was totally inconsolable and miserable even though Elkanah favored her because she wanted what she could not have.  And to make things worse, when she arose to seek the Lord at the tabernacle regarding her desire to have a baby, Eli accused her of being drunk while she was praying. (THIS GIRL WAS GOING THROUGH IT Y’ALL—sharing her man with another woman, living in a tent in the wilderness, enduring verbal abuse, and now, a man of God was accusing her of being drunk when she was looking for a safe space and someone to SEE HER.)

BUT HANNAH—Shew. She responded with nothing but kindness and respect to Eli, surrendered her fertility to the Lord, and went back home when she could have said “forget this” and turn the other way.

She didn’t run from the heartache and the crushing and what God was teaching her—she embraced it.

She returned knowing that there would still be another woman there.

She returned knowing that she was still in the wilderness.

BUT STILL—SHE WAITED, AND SHE TRUSTED.

AND GOD REMEMBERED HER—WHEWWWWWWW.

And not only did God bless her with a precious baby boy–just as she asked, but God blessed her with SAMUEL, who became a great and mighty prophet for the Lord and served the Lord all the days of his life. And in addition to that, God blessed her with even more children!!

 And it was because she made the decision to TRUST in her “NOT YET” season and TRUST GOD’S PLAN FOR HER LIFE.

ARE YOU GETTING THIS??!!

She didn’t lose her faith.

She didn’t turn her back on the problems.

She didn’t run the opposite way.

But instead, she chose to surrender her plans, to stay humble before God and others, and decided that she would devote the promise BACK TO GOD.

WHEW.

Oh, I LOVE Hannah’s heart!! 

This place that you are enduring is to prove to you that GOD WILL PROVIDE. He never falls back on His Word. He will sustain you. He will provide undeniable strength. He will silence your enemies. He will use the unlikeliest of ways to see you through.

God is 100% redefining your perception of Him and refining you at the same time. 

God is breaking religion off of you, making you unlearn what you once knew, pruning dried branches off of you, igniting a greater level of trust, consecrating you, and showing you that HE NEVER FAILS. 

So, may we be just like Hannah and carry humility in every circumstance, carry trust in every trial, and remember that GOD is our strength in every season—because God is always doing more than we could EVER imagine possible and equipping us along the way.

So fam, be encouraged today!! Be strong and courageous in the Lord–our El Shaddai!!

Dwell in Hannah’s prayer after she received her promise and know that God is not even close to being done with your story!!

“My heart rejoices in the Lord;    in the Lord my horn is lifted high.My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance.

“There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.

“Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance,for the Lord is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed.

“The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength.Those who were full hire themselves out for food, but those who were hungry are hungry no more.She who was barren has borne seven children, but she who has had many sons pines away.

“The Lord brings death and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and raises up.The Lord sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts. 

He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap;He seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor.

“For the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s; on them he has set the world. He will guard the feet of his faithful servants,  but the wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness.

“It is not by strength that one prevails; those who oppose the Lord will be broken.The Most High will thunder from heaven; the Lord will judge the ends of the earth.

“He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.”

-I Samuel 2:1-10

Love you fam!

SAM RIVERS JONES