FAITH CAPSULE: Shiloh is a ground to remain persistent.
1 Samuel 1
Despite opposition, obstacles, discouragement, and mockery, you continue to have hope in God for your breakthrough.
Despite the delay and abandonment from the loved ones, your trust does not waver.
Does any of the above describe your situation?
If yes, you are not alone. Know that God is with you.
It seems so very long that you have been waiting with no answer.
Know that as long as you remain persistent, you insist on the visitation of God by waiting.
God promised in Isaiah 64:4, “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides You, who acts for the one who waits for Him.”
A believer of the word should trust and hope that God acts for those waiting on Him.
Keep the testimony of Hannah, seek God, and you shall see His act manifested in your favor.
Elkanah, Hannah, Peninnah, and her sons and daughters attended Shiloh yearly to worship and sacrifice to the LORD of hosts.
Every year they went, nothing changed in the story of Hannah.
She was barren and coming.
Hannah does not complain or fight anyone despite no answer to her barren challenge.
Hannah was the neediest and probably the quietest.
Hannah kept on going with her family with no excuse.
She was barren but trusted God for intervention, and she was persistent. You may be wondering what happened in your case.
Are you questioning God?
Remain trusting and hopeful, continually wait and patiently, the character of persistence.
Keep calling on God without doubt, and be consistent.
Know that delay is not denial.
God is a good God.
He is a God of the eleventh hour to make a way where there is no way.
Persistence demonstrates that you have faith that pleases God.
God is not pleased when there is no faith.
The situation with Hannah was that God had closed her womb.
Elkanah gave his best to make up for Hannah.
1 Samuel 1:5 records, “…Hannah a double portion, for he loved Hannah, although the LORD had closed her womb.”
Elkanah cannot be in the place of God.
Persistency often provokes the hand of God to open a closed door.
The Lord God remembered Hannah, “So it came to pass in the process of time that Hannah conceived and bore a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, “Because I have asked for him from the Lord.” (1 Samuel 1:20)
The time of preparation is the process of time.
The Lord blessed Hannah more than she expected.
Know today that God is God.
Let nothing seal up your open door by confessing negatively.
Go the way of persistence and understanding that God can choose to open or close the door.
He alone is God.
Prayer for today: Ask God not to withhold His tender mercy from you.
Ask for His loving kindness to preserve you continually.