We must trust God when we don't understand the circumstances. We must trust him even when the circumstances seem to be a hindrance to their developing into men and women of God!

Called to Be a Mother

A Bible Study for Mothers

The God of Circumstances

1. How can we rejoice in the hard times?
2. What if God seems to allow the wrong circumstances or the wrong role models in our children's lives?

Then Hannah prayed and said:
"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 hunger 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;
upon them he has set the world.

He will guard the feet of his saints,
but the wicked will be silenced in darkness.

"It is not by strength that one prevails;

those who oppose the LORD will be shattered.
He will thunder against them 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."

Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, but the boy
ministered before the LORD under Eli the priest.

Eli's sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the LORD.

1 Samuel 2:1-12

After Hannah left her son at Shiloh, she said, "My heart rejoices in the Lord."

How can a mother rejoice when her son is being left behind, far away from her? How can a mother in our day rejoice when her son has chosen a wrong path and she must send him off for rehabilitation with people she has never met to a place she has never seen? How can a mother experience great joy and peace on what would seem to be one of the darkest days of her life?

This is peace that passes understanding. This is unexplainable.

But when a mother knows that she has steadfastly adhered to God's directions in raising her son; when a mother knows she has planted God's Word in her son's heart; when a mother knows she is following God's leadership now in the placement of her son -- In short, when a mother knows God is leading and she is obeying, she also knows that God is honor-bound to keep his word to her.

The fulfillment of the promise now rests on the Lord. What relief! What peace! What anticipation! What joy!

Hannah was able to express a beautiful prayer of joy unto the Lord, because the goal of her life was that she and her child would live for the Lord. Samuel was the child Hannah had longed for, the child she prayed for, the child God gave in answer to her prayers. Next to her husband, Samuel was the fulfillment of her heart's greatest desire, save one.

Save one -- Hannah's #1 supreme desire was to serve God. Samuel was not #1 in her life. Neither was her husband. The #1 position in her life was reserved for her God. We can only produce children that will honor the Lord as we put God in his rightful position in our own lives.

In I Samuel 2:9 Hannah proclaimed that "It is not by strength that one prevails." Hannah uses several other paradoxical statements in these verses to proclaim that what we see is not always what we get.

She may have been thinking back to the mocking she had experienced from Peninnah when Peninnah had children and Hannah had none (I Samuel 1:4-7; 2:5.) Hannah probably did not understand the fullness and prophecy of all God said through her in these verses.

But one thing is certain: God is always working behind the scenes in our children's behalf to accomplish the fruition of the Godly training we have planted in their lives. We may not always see the fulfillment of God's work in their lives with our own eyes, but we can trust God that the strength of wickedness will not prevail against his completion of what he begins in them through us!

Samuel was thrust into an environment, "young as he was," with older role models who "had no regard for the Lord." Yet in spite of this Samuel grew to be a man that God could use not only in his own day, but to record part of the Word of God that still speaks to men and women today!

We must allow God to control the circumstances of our children's lives. We must trust him when we don't understand the circumstances. We must trust him even when the circumstances seem to be a hindrance to their developing into men and women of God!

We cannot blame environment, role models, or circumstances. We have the same God today that Hannah had. Let us share him with our children then trust them to him!