Welcome to the In-Touch Podcast with Tarl Stanley from Monday, June 5th.

Have you ever read the Old Testament and wondered how those stories have anything to do with life in the 21st century?

Today, we begin a series that can help you develop a heart for God that will impact you and those around you.

Hope is the desire for something good in the expectation that you and I will receive it.

And the stronger our desire, the greater our hope, the more tenaciously we hold on to what we hope for.

Yet, in spite of that, all of us have had those hopes that sometimes we had to struggle to hold on to, and there's particular reasons for that.

And sometimes we've been tempted to give up, to lay them down to surrender our hopes.

And if God has placed the hope in your heart, don't give it up, don't surrender it no matter what.

Now, I want you to turn, if you will, to the book of 1 Samuel.

And in 1 Samuel, there is a beautiful example of someone who held on to their hope in spite of many, many difficult circumstances.

And so, in the process of looking at this passage, I think you'll find something that will be most encouraging to you.

And in 1 Samuel, chapter 1, and it begins like this.

Now, that was a certain man from Ramatham Zofim, from the hill country of Ephraim, and his name was Elkana, the son of Jero, the son of Ilahud, the son of Tohuh, the son of Zoof, and Ephraimite.

And he had two wives. The name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other Penana, and Penana had children, but Hannah had no children.

Now, this man would go up from the city, yearly to worship, and to sacrifice to the Lord of Host and Shalom, and the two sons of Ilahud, Hophni and Thinahas, were priest to the Lord there.

And when the day came, the Elkana sacrificed, he would give portions to Penana, his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters.

But Hannah, he would give a double portion for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had closed her womb.

Her arrival, that is the second wife here, her arrival, however, would provoke her, bitterly to irritate her because the Lord had closed her womb.

And it happened year after year, as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she would provoke her, so she wept and would not eat, that is Hannah.

Then Elkana, her husband, said to her, Hannah, why do you weep, and why do you not eat, and why is your heart sad? Am I not better to you than ten sons?

Then Hannah rose after eating and drinking in Shalom, where they were worshiping. Now Ilahud, the priest, was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the temple of the Lord, and she greatly distressed, prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly.

And she made a vow and said, O Lord of host, if thou will indeed look on the affliction of our maid servant, and remember me and not forget our maid servant, but will give our maid servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life.

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