To be fully HUMAN — A Daily Reflection

1 Samuel 1:1-20 NIV

Hannah was in a frustrating position.  She lived in a time when a woman’s ability to bear children was essential – so essential, it was legal for a man to divorce a barren woman… an divorced, barren woman could look forward to a life of destitution.  She was totally undesirable, unneeded and unwanted.  But Hannah was married to Elkanah, a man who loved her so much that he didn’t care whether she had children or not.   Even so, Hannah was frustrated… and angry… and bitter.  She could look around and see all the other women with their children, and her heart cried out to have a child of her own.  We don’t know how old Hannah was when she gave birth to Samuel, but the account states that "year after year" they went up to Shiloh to offer sacrifices, so she was well past the time most women started having children.  In her eyes, the time for her to have children was years earlier – long before it actually happened.  Frustrating as it was for Hannah, God chose to postpone Hannah’s childbearing years until it fit into His eternal schedule.  So, Hannah had to wait.

In our lives, many times we are faced with the same type of frustration.  We want things to happen, and we want them right now!  Logic says that we should be able to solve every problem instantly.  After all, we’re Christians.  We have God on our side.  We should never have to deal with things like unemployment, or financial problems, or difficult teenagers, or divorce, or illness.  We should be able to instantly zap our problems into outer space, right?  Wrong.  God does not wear a watch.  Yes, He knows what time it is and what day and year and month it is.  But He has an eternal timetable… a plan that He keeps that has nothing to do with the order of events you and I try to arrange for Him.  Every once in a while, He allows us to understand His timing, giving us a clear picture of just why He waited weeks or months or even years to answer a specific prayer.

I once knew a man who lost his job as President of national sales for a large company.  There was no apparent reason for the firing.  He just went in one morning as usual, and they let him go.  He and his family went through a very difficult year while he looked for work.  The whole time, that family continually questioned why God would cause him to lose that wonderful job that he loved so much.  A year later, all of the top executives of that company came under federal indictment for fraud – even some who were innocent.  Had that man remained in that company one week longer, he would have been one of the ones indicted!  When he thought God had been causing him and his family pain, in reality God was protecting him from an even greater pain!

If you’re frustrated right now with God’s timing in your life, remember His eternal schedule – and rejoice that He is planning ahead for you!