Sermons

A GODLY MOTHER
(I Samuel 1: 1-28)
Ptr. Greg Tupas, Jr.

YOU can be a good mother but not necessarily a godly mother! Generally, mothers are good at attending to the needs of their children both at home and at school. Not all mothers are good, though because there are mothers, we know who don’t want the responsibility of motherhood and they let other people do it for them by leaving their babies on the gateway of other peoples’ houses. What is worse is that there are even mothers who can afford to throw their babies inside the garbage cans. There are however, a few a few mothers who do that.

Christian mothers are expected to be good and godly mothers at the same time. It is actually difficult to be a good mother and a godly mother at the same time, considering this evil society we live in nowadays. Here in Canada, for example most of the mothers are working mothers to help augment the family budget, which make them hard to balance their work outside the home and their duties as a wife and a mother.

Our text narrates the story of a mother in the Old Testament, that of Hannah, the wife of Elkanah, who had another wife, Peninah. Peninah had children while Hannah was childless and her adversary provoked her and made her very unhappy although her husband loved her so much.
Despite Hannah’s situation, she remained faithful to God. We will study the character traits of Hannah as an example of a godly mother:

I. Hannah was faithful to God. The Bible is filled with real people of real faith. During the time of Hannah, Israel rejected God’s rule over them. There was no government. Every man did what was right in their own eyes. She was living a godly life in an ungodly society.
Similarly today, we are surprised to hear our children say bad words when we only teach them to say good words. The outside world is very influential and ungodly people cause problems to godly people.

Hannah had family problems:

1. Her husband had another wife, Peninah.
It was not God’s plan for man to have more than one wife. He created Adam, and Eve was created as a help meet for him (Genesis 2:18). God tolerated but never indorsed polygamous marriages. When we break God’s laws on marriage, the following problems arise:
a) relationship problems
b) financial problems
c) in laws meddling in family matters
d) raising godly children in an ungodly society, etc.
2. Peninah used her childlessness (v. 2) to provoke Hannah and this caused her pain and sorrow (v. 6) and made her live a very difficult life.
* Children are gifts from God. He gives them to whom He wishes to give them and we should accept His will. We should be sensitive enough not to hurt the feelings of those who are without children. We should not joke about it or we might be disrespectful to God’s will.
3 El Kanah, though he loved Hannah, could not understand the feelings of his wife (v.8).
Hannah could have given up living a godly life because of her problems, but she remained faithful to God.

II. Hannah was prayerful. She expressed her faith in prayers (vv.10-11). She prayed hard and asked God for a son and she vowed with tears in her eyes to dedicate the child to the Lord .
· When our tears mingle with our prayers, our prayers come from our hearts.
· Children are not just for parents, they are also for the Lord.
When Hannah received the benediction of Eli, the priest, she experienced the peace that drove away her sorrow (v. 18).
III. Hannah kept her promise to the Lord (vv 24-28).
Christian mothers should keep their promise to the Lord. She gave back Samuel, her son to God. Samuel became godly because of his mother’s example and training.
Hannah remained faithful to God despite the problems that surrounded her.
She continued to be prayerful and trusted that God will grant her prayers.
She promised God and she made good her promise.

Mothers, you are of great worth. God loves you for who you are and not of what you do. His grace is sufficient to sustain you whatever problems you have or situations you are in. There is no greater honor than to give your children to the Lord. Each of us has our own personal relationship with God. Encourage your children to serve God by being a living example.