None of our problems are too hard for God. So many times we get so short-sighted with God. We get so focused on a moment or a situation and God is actually trying to take us well beyond that moment into a place of greater blessing.
1 Sam 1:2 Elkanah had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none. NIV
Have you ever seen somebody making progress beside you and you had a hard time being happy for them because it wasn’t happening for you? Sometimes God will use a situation you see to provoke you to a deeper pursuit! Our motives may not even be in the right place at times but Jesus is the Master at doing more than we thought He could with less than we thought he needed. If we will simply place something in his hands He will see us through!!! A young boy gave his lunch to Jesus once and 5,000 people were fed as a result.
Peninnah had the same context of marriage but seemed to be accomplishing more within the same context than Hannah. Hannah was motivated and we aren’t sure that the motive was born from healthy emotion. Maybe your motive isn’t awesome when you see somebody beside you advancing prosperously but God can use it to awaken restlessness provoking readiness for more!
It is possible for you to use somebody else’s success to provoke your own pursuit. Get more focused! Fast, pray and cry out to God for more of why you were born!!!
1 Sam 1:6-8 Because the LORD had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. 7 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. 8 Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted?
None of us were born for the sidelines. All of us have eternity in our hearts driving us to a pursuit for more. Every stage of life we find ourselves looking ahead. In school we always looked to the older students as a future we wanted to become. Single people want to be married. Married people want children. There is great discontentment in our hearts when we find ourselves settling for a something less than what we were created by God to embrace.
Discovering what God says this looks like in your life is vitally important to fulfilling the assignment God has for you! If you don’t understand how God actually purposes to use disappointments and even your enemies to promote you then you’ll just keep getting discouraged every time difficulty comes your way.David would only be known as a shepherd boy if it weren’t for Goliath
God could’ve used King Saul to promote David; Saul had the authority. He could’ve moved on Saul’s heart, told him to promote that young man. Interestingly God chose to bless David, not through his friends, but through his enemies. Goliath was strategically placed in David’s path, not to defeat him, but to promote him.
Hannah found herself provoked to a deeper pursuit. Instead of stepping back she chose to step forward into a stronger place of prayer and she got more. Interestingly her breakthrough wasn’t only about the breakthrough she was hoping to experience.
1 Sam 1:22 Hannah said to her husband, “After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the LORD, and he will live there always… 24 After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was…(presenting him to Eli) 27 I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. 28 So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD.” NIV
When God gives you your breakthrough are you going to walk away or are you going to see it through? Imagine the heartbroken mother who finally had a baby. She had to kiss his little face with tears running down her cheeks. I'm sorry. Mama really does love you but I'm going to have to leave you because I told the Lord if he gave you to me I would give you back and I am staying true to my word.
Hannah saw her blessing through and this breakthrough then made a way for her to begin having babies! She went on to have 5 more children. Samuel was the first born not the end of the line. This breakthrough was not the conclusion of the promise. This was not about the breakthrough of having a baby. It was getting Samuel brought before the Lord as the seed to open her womb to have five more children. What is God trying to awaken in your life and in your legacy?
We Bring GP2RL Action Point:
Take time this week to pray about your giving in 2019. Come prepared next Sunday to make a pledge as part of the Destiny family.
DISCUSSION GUIDE FOR COMMUNITY GROUP LEADERS
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Psalm 24:1 The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. (NKJV)
God created everything. It all belongs to God. God OWNS it and God LOANS it. This makes us managers rather than owners of all that God has entrusted to our care. Giving is a reminder that we are to be good managers of what God has blessed us with.
2 Corinthians 9:7 Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (NIV)
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. Have you ever given reluctantly or out of guilt? Why isn’t God interested in this kind of giving?
2. What is the connection between our hearts and our giving?
3. Has giving been a way of praising and worshiping God for you personally? Why or why not? If so, how has it brought you closer to God?
Malachi 3:8 I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground. (NKJV)
Giving is a powerful weapon when it comes to spiritual warfare.
God is loving and giving as we see in John 3:16 - for God so loved that he gave. Jesus is loving and giving as he sacrificially surrendered his life on our behalf. In order to be truly Christ-like, we must be givers.
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (NIV)
DISCUSSION QUESTION:
4. Even though God created us in His own image to be givers, why is it often difficult for us to give?
Malachi 3:10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. (NIV)
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
5. Why do you think God says to test Him in this? Have you tested Him in this?
6. What types of blessings have you seen come from tithing? What have been the results?
We Bring GP2RL Action Point:
Take time this week to pray about your giving in 2019. Come prepared next Sunday to make a pledge as part of the Destiny family.