HAPPEN TO LIFE

Main Scriptures: 1Sam.1:7-8

More Scriptures: Acts 10:38, Heb.1:9, Lk.4:18

Year after year, it was the same-Peninnah would taunt Hannah as they went to the Tabernacle. Each time, Hannah would be reduced to tears and would not even eat. “Why are you crying, Hannah”? Elkanah would ask. Why are you not eating? Why be downhearted just because you have no children? YOU HAVE ME-ISN’T THAT BETTER THAN HAVING TEN SONS? (1Sam.1:7-8)

The title of today’s devotional was the advert buy-line of Leadway Assurance and Stanbic IBTC. Both companies are located in Nigeria and happen to be among the leading insurance and Pension Fund companies in Nigeria. The summary of the adverts is that when the challenges of life show up, there is someone to help you. This is exactly what the Person of the Holy Spirit wants to teach you and I from the first book of Samuel chapter 1 and verse 8. Elkanah had a wife. Her name was Hannah. She suffered delayed in conception for a very long while. She was mocked by those within her family fold and those around her. But through it all-mockery and delay- she had her husband’s support and encouragement. Read what the husband told her, “You have me”. This means if anything and anyone abandons you, you can always rely on me.

This is the attitude God expects you to extend to your wife and children when they are being challenged by the negative circumstances of life. It may be in the area of their spiritual life, academic pursuit, social relationships, finances, health and marriage. In whatever areas your wife and children are being challenged, you have the God-given responsibility to matter to them much more than their challenges.

So, how do I happen to them? First, pray for and with them (Lk.18:1). Secondly, be available for them by giving them your time and be physically present. Thirdly, speak words of encouragement and not words of fear, intimidation and hopelessness. Everywhere Jesus went to and everyone He met, He became a pillar of support and hope to them-the Samaritan woman, the woman caught in the very act of adultery, the blind Bartimeus, the man who was crippled for thirty-eight years, e.t.c. You are not just a figure head. You are a kind of Christ (Eph.5:25). Happen to your wife and children.

SPIRITUAL EXERCISE

• Father, in the Name of Jesus, anoint my tongue to speak graceful words to my wife and children in their times of challenges.
• Father, in the Name of Jesus, make me a channel of hope to my wife and children.
• Father, in the Name of Jesus, deliver me from the force of discouragement and alternatives.

FAITH CONFESSION

When life happens to my wife and children, I am available for them because that is what makes me the good and godly husbandman in Jesus name. Amen.

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