Today’s reading is from the first is from the first chapter of Samuel sorry verses 6 through 18. Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. Her husband elkana would say to her; “Hannah why are you weeping? why don’t you eat? why are you

down-hearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons? Once, when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up.

Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s House. In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the

Lord weeping bitterly and she made a vow saying “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me and not forget your servant but give her a son then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life and no razor will ever be used on his head”. As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her “how long are you going to stay drunk? put away your wine” not so my Lord Hannah replied “I am a woman who is deeply troubled I have not been drinking wine or beer I was pouring out my soul to the Lord”. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief. Eli answered “go in peace and may the god of Israel Grant you what you have asked of him” she said “may your servant find favor in your eyes”. Then she went her way and ate something and her face was no longer

Downcast.

This is the word of the Lord

May the Lord be with you this morning. We are going to actually

talk a little bit more about Hannah’s grief or eight Divine instructions that

I could put together for the year 2023. But before I do so, let me take a moment

to acknowledge that so many of you have come to this new year.

Maybe in grief and everybody comes for so many of you maybe you just lost somebody that you love, if you lost husband, a wife, brother, sister, somebody who was very meaningful to you. I want to honor you as we speak today, as you know that you have come to Jesus who know how to console the broken hearted.

If you have been going through battles to know the God in Christ is with you and I would like to pray with you at the end of this service, Muhammad Ali says this; it isn’t the mountain ahead, it isn’t a mountain ahead to climb that wear you out, it’s a pebble in your shoe.

It isn’t the mountain that you are facing in your life, it’s not the big thing that is actually what you are facing, is not the Shadow or the umbrage of a big mountain and difficulty that is ahead of you. In this year and in the year to come, it’s not the big challenge

of that you need to worry about, it is not the big mountain that will wear you out. It’s the pebble in your shoe. I wonder if you’ve had that moment of pebbling your shoes when you walk, suddenly somehow through the events of life a little Pebble, a little Stone will get in your shoe and suddenly it creates a different kind of angst. Suddenly your walk is not steady anymore. Suddenly you’re not happy, there’s something bothering your walk. You try to walk on the side of your foot and you don’t feel good, you try to get it to go in front. It doesn’t work, you say, oh a pebble on my shoot for crying out loud.

I was just going to see my grandma, but there is a pebble I’m wrestling with. I’m

struggling to get rid of this little piece of rock, piece of dirt that is in my shoes and I don’t know how to get rid of that. How to free myself and how to shake it off.

David in the book of Psalm 57 verse 46 he declares us, he says this. He speaks about different Pebbles on people’s shoes, on his shoes. He says this my soul among lions. I lie among the sons of man who are set on fire. Whose teeth are Spears and arrows and

their tongue a sharp sword. That’s not nice. These are people who are out to get him he says. Among lions he describes the people. His critics as lions a month from the longest sons of man. He didn’t say this is just an animal. Say my people, some of the people from his own country, from his own Entourage, are against him. See they are set on fire because they are motivated. The teeth being the Spears and arrow, means the growling on him. The tongue is a sharp sword. They can speak nasty, wood have you met somebody who can just speak nasty words and it discourages you so fast.

Someone just look at you in a different way and you say, oh my Lord and you hate yourself already. They’ll make you hate yourself. Those are the kind of people he’s talking about. He says they have prepared a net for my step, it’s not a good thing a nurse that they are trying to trap him by the mannerism and he said my soul is bowed down.

Have you been there, where your soul is just crushed. He says this; they have dug a pit before me they want him to stumble, it really isn’t the mountain ahead to climb that where you are. It’s a pebble in your shoe, the daily Pebbles we carry of stress,

Anxiety, disappointments. Soul frustration that can overwhelm and cause much harm.

Maybe for you the people you are struggling with and maybe it’s grief, maybe it’s rejection, maybe your boyfriend just say let’s just be friends. Maybe the girl just told you hey I love you but why don’t we just be friends and you have come home and you look into a mirror and you hated yourself. So, you go to the mirror and you are there, you bow down, your soul is a cave inside those daily people of disappointment. Maybe you’ve been disappointed so much, promise that are not fulfilled. You know those pebbles, they can alter your walk, your attitude, your mood, the rhythm of your life and your shalom.

A little pebble, a little injury, maybe somebody made a comment about your size,

somebody made a comment about your way, somebody made a comment about the way your face looked. Like for me, I don’t care because I have a face only a mother will love. But for you, somebody made a comment on you.

So we find in the story today, we find this Hannah, struggling with her adversity and her adversity is described. In many ways, it’s like it’s a pebble. So the Bible says her arrival provoked her severely to make her miserable because the Lord has closed her womb. What was the purpose of her arrival? What does that say, what was the purpose? Well, I wonder what is it that her rivalry wouldn’t want to do to her to do what to be careful. Happy no, what did she want to make her to feel that misery. Have you been there when somebody want to make you feel miserable, to make you miserable, they are so overbearing. Their purpose is declared, they tell you it’s one thing when somebody wishes for you to be miserable, it’s another when the person say my job right now in your life is to make you be the most miserable person in the face of the Earth. This woman her rival which is her core spouse, she’s not happy with her and she’s mocking Hannah. She’s saying you don’t have a child so you’re really illegitimate. God has cursed you because you don’t have a child.

So you have somebody in your life who is just after you to destroy you, to cause misery to change the quality of your life. The Bible talk about our adversity, our adversary the devil is out. What he did to destroy, to seek, to kill, to destroy you and to

erode the quality of your life you experience of your life will be codified by their criticism,  by their rejection, by their word on you. But, notice this who made her, who closed her womb. Why did the Lord closed her womb, sometime the Lord does something to you and some are precisely a certain time. He tested you, he puts you to the test. That was a test, there is a test of your calling, God called you and there’s a test of character because Charisma is one thing. Some people are very charismatic but Charisma without character cannot take you to your destiny through a place that God calling.

So, if God has called you to something, to a purpose, he will test you. Me being charismatic, is not all that there is to me, it’s a character that carries me because if you are called by God, you will be tested so you need to be patient. It is important for you to know that if God is testing you, if God bring you to a testing ground, it is not to harm you,

is not to destroy you, it is not to delete you, it is not to counsel you. If God brought you to the testing ground, my brother, my sister, the whole world can stand against you but I’ll tell you the purposes of God, and yes and amen, and they shall be fulfilled.

I’m telling you the faninas of your life will stand against you, they will mock you, they will

yell at you, they will trivialize your situation, but I want you to know this, I want you to understand, he is still working on you and on me. When people find you, you are just like Hannah, your womb is closed, I mean you’re not productive. You’re not bearing fruit. Have you been there, maybe your business is not fruitful, maybe your family things are just not going well. Maybe it seems like if you are, listen to me. Nobody’s coming to church, nobody’s showing up, you put the party and nobody shall show up, this is the Lord tested and God tests his people. God never uses someone. Sometime let me repeat it at time. The Lord never used you unless he tests you and grieve you deeply. Sometimes God never uses you greatly until he tests you. For many of us we are giving up because of the test, the moment of test, that God has put before you and the scripture says this:

Penina, she was a source of Relentless provocation. Do you have any penina in your life? She is actually here, the villain of a story. She’s out to get Hannah, she’s mocking her. Not one week, the Bible says year after. Year after year, arrival to keep provoking her relentlessly because the enemy wanted her to give up. Penina wanted her to give up,  to give up trying. But what Penina didn’t know is that Hannah’s problem was a setup for God’s greatness and glory to manifest. Sometimes you don’t know that what you are struggling with. It’s a setup, God is working everything to his good according to his glory. If you are being tested, if your health is being tested, do not give up. The views struggling mental health problems do not give up. Don’t give up hope, the enemy wants you to give up hope because you are feeling like giving up hope. Everyday, you have the same problem and everybody wants to avoid you. I want you to know the Penina of the world sometimes, they will manifest unannounced. Very easy to be discouraged and to give up because that’s what the enemy want to do. The paninas of your life, they will discourage you. The word Hannah, it mean it actually means favor. What is her name favor, I want you to notice that now Hannah’s grief is that I can never measure up. I can never live up to my name. Her name is favor and guess what she misses, the most favor. It’s like you remember the Prayer of Jabez. His name is Jabez meaning he shall

cause pain.

So Jabez goes and prays to the Lord. He said Lord change my name. He said Lord help me. So, that I may not cause pain, Hannah her name means favor. But she’s struggling to live up to her name within the scripture. There is something. Sometimes your name the name of somebody is equal to their nature. They didn’t just name people like that by chance. Like this, they study this. So, her name is favor, but what she is experiencing in life is everything but favor. She is experiencing provocation, rejection, disfavor and her prayer is this. In first Samuel 1 18 she said Lord let your maid servant find a favor in your sight. She said all I want is favor, all I want is the mercies of God. The favor is the touch of God, is a relief from Heaven, it’s a hope from on high. Favor, when will I be visited by favor because I’m going through emotional bankruptcy. I have no child I have no descendant. There’s no generation, there’s nobody, no inheritance, what am I going to do.

Here’s the question for you what are the Pebbles in your shoes? This year, what are the pebbles in your shoes? It’s a bumpy road to better. It’s a bumpy yard distraction, silent frustrations, they can take you. Of course they keep you from seeing the bigger picture of your life. I want you to know no matter what happened, he’s got the whole world. Whatever happens, whatever frustration, whatever distraction, that you are having right now, I want you to know, because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he left my fears are gone. Whatever you do in life, I want you to know it’s going to be a struggle. Whatever you do, it’s going to be a struggle. You call to be a pastor, it’s going to be a struggle. You’re called to be a nurse, it’s gonna be a struggle. You call to be a teacher, it’s going to be a struggle. So, you need to find the struggle that’s right for you. That one I didn’t make it up, I wrote it, I read in the book. I always say it, I like it. whatever you do in life will be a struggle so you need to find the struggle that is right for you. What’s your struggle?