Key verse: 1 Samuel 1:1-24
Sermon in a sentence: God worked through Hannah’s prayer petition to bring a larger solution into His Harvest, our personal harvests can become much more if they are aligned to kingdom purposes. 

God can work out his purposes in our ordinary wants, we must avail ourselves for his service. 
Harvest time is a time of joy, but sometimes before these times of joy; there are seasons of dryness and bareness
Like is the case in the passage, God is His wisdom may usher us in seasons of bareness.
If we remain steadfast, greater and impactful is the harvest that God is bringing our way
In the text we have a picture of Hannah travailing as looks forward to bearing a son, 1 Samuel 1:7, 13
In bible travailing is word used to denote a deep sense of agony and anxiousness 
It is used sometimes used in the context of child birth and describes associated pains.

1. Do not get side-tracked by mockers
   • Some harvests if not all, will attract mockers 
   • Hannah was in a position of favour and yet was humiliated at the same time.
   • The devil is a specialist in discouragement, we must watch out.
   • Life circumstances can taunt and haunt us despite the grace and benefits we have accessed as believers 
   • Despite the humiliation and mockery, every year Hannah would still go with her family to worship at Shiloh.
   • We are always confronted by reports of mockers, the ungodly and many other reports to discourage us.
   • In the midst of the many voices, we must isolate God’s promises and reports and embrace them.
2.  Rise above offensive situations
   •  The pursuit of a harvest or dream may us lead us to places where we are misunderstood 
   • Being misjudged or misunderstood is a common occurrence, just rise above offence and focus on the harvest
   • Hannah was so focused on her petition and God to the extent that she overlooked the characterisation by Eli.
   • Being offended is a smaller problem, the bigger challenge is how we react to the offense!
   • Eli was sincere but wrong in her judgement of Hannah’s, but it is the same Eli that told Hannah “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him.” 1 Samuel 1:17
   • Standing with people in prayer is an important form of care.
3. Always travail prayerfully
   • Great harvests are prayerfully birthed 
   • There is no substitute for dependence on God, the sooner we realise that God is the most important factor the faster we can come to the place of a harvest
   • The depth of the burden we carry is demonstrated by our prayer and devotion to the same.
   • Our personal harvest should find relevance in the kingdom harvest, this is possible through deeper communion with God in prayer
   • Through deep communion in prayer Hannah is able to tap into the heart of God.
   • Hannah’s prayer
   • She channelled her frustration and pain to the Lord
   • Her prayer came from her heart to the heart of God 
   • She believed that God was able to give not just a child but a son
   • She prayed in the will of the God-1 John 5:14 
4.   Give feet to your faith -
   • Travailing requires making bold steps of faith 
   • So Hannah made a vow to give the son back to the Lord, strange!
   • She has this understanding that without God she would not have a son and so she has no problem with God getting back the son.
   • God is much bigger and more important than the answers we are looking for, so is God beyond and above our personal harvest

Hannah’s faith

• She continued to travail despite the humiliation and taunts from Penninah 
• She demonstrated her faith by making vow to the Lord,  the son would be a Nazarite
• She received the word of the Lord in faith as pronounced by Eli
• There are some things that will only shift when God comes in, Hannah did all that was humanly possible to get her answers and God did that which was only divinely possible for Hannah to have a son.

Conclusion
Hannah’s personal harvest, the birth of Samuel was to impact not only Hannah but the whole nation of Israel.