"God often allows a season of delay and trials in our lives to bring us to a place of surrender and alignment with His plan."
Hannah was one of the wives of Elkanah and we are made to know that she had no children because God had shut her womb in 1Samuel chapter one.
The question I kept asking myself was, why did God shut the womb of Hannah?
Have you ever thought about why God shut the womb of Hannah?
Have you ever thought about why God allowed Hannah to go through a season of delay and t... more"God often allows a season of delay and trials in our lives to bring us to a place of surrender and alignment with His plan."
Hannah was one of the wives of Elkanah and we are made to know that she had no children because God had shut her womb in 1Samuel chapter one.
The question I kept asking myself was, why did God shut the womb of Hannah?
Have you ever thought about why God shut the womb of Hannah?
Have you ever thought about why God allowed Hannah to go through a season of delay and trials before giving birth to Samuel?
Do you know that most parents have already decided on who they want their children to become in future even before giving birth to them?
Parents would love to see their children become doctors, lawyers or engineers and oftentimes the children have no say.
I believe that if Hannah had not gone through a season of delay, she would have acted the same way concerning Samuel.
God had already ordained that the child that would come forth from Hannah's womb will be his prophet but until Hannah came to a place of surrender and alignment with God's plan, her womb was shut.
I believe this wasn't the first, second or third time that Hannah cried to God for a child, but this was the first time she asked God for a child for the right reason.
I believe this was the first time her reason for wanting a child agreed with God's plan and agenda.
And she vowed a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”
1 Samuel 1:11 ESV
"Hannah didn't ask God for a child for herself but for God."
Hannah didn't ask God for a child so that she may have someone that would take care of her when she is old but that God may have someone that will take care of His house.
Hannah didn't ask God for a child to shut up Peninnah or put her to shame but that God may have a prophet in Israel.
"Self and the wrong motive was out of the picture."
It was not recorded that Peninnah dedicated any of her children to God all the days of their lives.
If Hannah had gotten children the same time as Peninnah, I doubt if she would have dedicated any of them to God all the days of their lives.
I doubt if she would have allowed any of her children to go live and serve in the house of God all the days of their lives.
The season of delay that Hannah had to go through was not in vain because it brought her to a place of "surrender" and "alignment" with God's plan.
In those years that Abraham had no child, God was doing something unique in his life such that when Abraham finally had a child and God requested that the child be offered as a sacrifice, Abraham didn't object but obeyed without delay.
Some doors are yet to be opened and requests yet to be granted not because you don't have enough faith or because the enemy is standing against it but because you are yet to come to a place of surrender and alignment with God's plan.
It's not only your faith that God looks at, He also looks at your motive.
James said you ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions in James chapter 4 verses 3.
We all have an agenda for whatever we are praying to God for right? My question to you is this, Is God and His purpose part of that agenda?
Is it all about you and what you want to achieve or is it all about God and what He wants done?
Are you praying for God to prosper you so you can go buy the latest cars, begin to show off and party or that you may give towards the propagation of the Gospel of Christ?
"Hannah had a child not until after she made a vow to give the child back to God to serve in His House all the days of his life".
The motive behind why we want what we are praying to God for must align or agree with God's plan.
I believe God often allows a season of delay and trials in our lives to bring us to a place of total surrender and alignment with His plan.
A place where it would no longer be me, me, me but God and His kingdom.
A place where you nolonger ask God for anything for the wrong reasons but for the right reasons.
A place where we nolonger want anything for self-gratification but God glorification.
A place where when God puts a demand on what He has given to us, we won't object or delay in surrendering those things.
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
1 John 5:14 ESV
There are some prayers that won't be answered, doors that won't be opened, battles that won't be won and resources that won't be released until we come to place of total surrender and alignment with God's plan.
