TEXT: ‘Then she made a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head’ (1 Samuel 1:11). 1 Samuel starts with this wonderful account of Hannah achieving her breakthrough. How do we react when we have the promise from God, but it remains an unanswered prayer? There are six things Today’s Teaching considers as we study, “Praying the Prayer of Breakthrough”. 1. Problem – ‘Hannah had no children … the Lord had closed her womb’ It wasn’t that she was physically incapable of birthing a child, she just couldn’t conceive. She felt in herself that everything was okay, yet month after month, year after year, no conception. The promise of God concerning childbearing remained unfulfilled, ‘Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward’ (Psalm 127:3). You may have a different problem and promise. Naturally there doesn’t seem to be a reason why you cannot receive the answer. How quickly that kind of scenario can lead into depression. 2....
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TEXT: ‘Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God’ (Hebrews 12:1-2). In Part 1 we studied how the lives and faithfulness of past believers are encouraging us to continue in the faith. As Jesus is our supreme example and focus, we’re to look to Him because He is the author and finisher of our faith. In the epic film, “Chariots of Fire”, Eric Liddell (who later became a missionary to China) loved running and was an excellent athlete, even winning a gold medal in the 1924 Paris Olympic games. The film featured one race in which he slipped and fell while running. His competitors raced on ahead. What did he do? He got up and started running again and before long he retook the lead and won. As Christians it’s all too easy to slip and fall over, but don’t stay on the ground. Pick yourself up and continue because you...
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