1 Samuel 1:6 (NKJV)

“And her rival also provoked her severely, to make her miserable, because the Lord had closed her womb.”

Life is full of competition and rivalry, and many will seek to provoke you for unnecessary reasons. Even when you do not desire to partake in the rivalry, others will force their warped sense of competition on you. For so many people, life is incomplete without some form of race and struggle, and therefore they may identify you as an object of opposition, and for their sanity, they will begin an unnecessary struggle with you. How must we respond to them?

I love Hannah. She never retorted or allowed herself to be drawn into the rivalry. She was obviously at the losing end of the game, and she could have been justifiably bitter towards Penninah, but she wasn’t. Instead, she took her issue to the Lord. Since it was the Lord who had closed her womb, she knew that only the Lord could open her womb. She wasn’t ready to be drawn into the pettiness of irrelevant competition. She kept her focus on the Lord and away from the provocation. Refusing to be provoked shows where your real hopes and priorities are. Responding to provocation only reveals the littleness of your faith and the instability of your inner life. We can’t afford to fail the test of provocation, even when it is severe, as in the case of Penninah.

“Lord, I know that I am provoked every day by all kinds of people, but I have learned today not to heed these provocations; neither should I respond to them. If these things hurt me, teach me to lift up my eyes to You and You alone. Only You can sort me out. Amen.”