You know, when the storms of life are raging around us, humility is the last thing that comes to mind. But humility, it turns out, is the key to dealing with the storm, in a most unexpected way.

The things that go on deep in our hearts, well sometimes we think, only we know. "No-one really knows what I'm thinking, no-one knows that I hate this person or I envy that person or I lied about this or hid that. No, the things deep in my heart, they're completely hidden from the rest of the world."

And yet nothing could be further from the truth because those things in our hearts, well they're written all over our faces and the rest of the world sees them through what we say and what we do.

Our behaviour betrays our hearts because who we are on the outside comes from who we are on the inside. The two are linked, cause and effect, it's that simple and even if they weren't, even if the rest of the world couldn't read our hearts by watching us and listening to us, there's at least one other person who knows what's going on inside.

"God only knows". How often have you heard that? Well He does, He knows what's going on in our hearts and it turns out, what's happening inside, deep inside in our heart means everything to Him.

This week on the program we're looking at the storms of life. You know when you're out on an angry ocean, it's a scary place and a storm hits and your life and my life, you know we can both think of recent storms. Don't have to think back very far, big ones, little ones and over this week we've been taking a look at how two different people, or groups of people, handled their perfect storm.

Hannah was a woman, the wife of Elkanah, one of two wives, the other wife Peninnah had children and Hannah had none and there's incredible pain in her heart. She goes and takes it to God, have a listen, if you weren't able to join us earlier in the week. She prays, this is from 1 Samuel chapter 1:

Once they'd finished eating and drinking at Shiloh, Hannah stood up. The priest Eli was sitting on his chair at the doorpost of the Lords temple and in the bitterness of her soul, Hannah wept much and prayed to God and she made a vow saying, "O Lord Almighty, if you would only look upon your servants misery and remember me and don't forget your servant but give her a son then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life." Then she went away and ate something and her face was no longer downcast.

You know what I see looking at Hannah, you can probably see it too, I see a humble heart. I see a heart humble enough not to lash out at other people or whinge or complain or act badly. Amidst the bitterness of her soul, the extreme pain, she pours her heart out to God.

Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, priests, turns out they're bad dudes. I mean the priests are meant to be the religious leaders, they're meant to be Gods men, the go betweens between God and His people, if anyone should have honoured God in their hearts, it shouldn't have been Hannah, it should have been them. But instead they slept with prostitutes and they plundered the peoples sacrifices to God and this is what God does. We looked at it briefly yesterday on the program:

A man of God comes to Eli the priest and says to him, "This is what the Lord says, 'Didn't I bless you? Didn't I reveal myself to your father's house? Didn't I appoint your family as priests? Haven't I given you everything? Why is it that you scorn my sacrifices and offerings that I've prescribed for my temple? Why do you honour your sons more than you honour me by stealing, by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people of Israel'?

Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel declares: 'I promise you that your house and your father's house, I promised that you would minister before me forever but now', the Lord declares, 'far be it from me because those who honour Me, I will honour but those who despise me I will disdain. The time is coming when I will cut short your strength and the strength of your father's house so that there will be not one old man in your family and you will see distress in My dwelling.

Let me ask you something; who do you think was on solid ground here, Hannah or Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas who pleased themselves? Hannah who was struggling in the midst of her storm and who honoured God or these priests, Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, who just plundered and took what they want and turned their backs on God? See, Hannah with her humble heart or the priests, with all their positions and titles and all that stuff but who wouldn't know God if they fell over Him.

You know what I reckon; it's easy to be like Eli, Hophni and Phinehas but it's hard to be like Hannah. You know why? Because we can't really see God, not like we can see the physical reality we're in, not like we can see our circumstances, not like we can see the storm and feel the fear. All those things seem so much more real than this notion of a God that we can't see; a God that we have to talk to by faith instead of touch and hear physically.

And so this present reality takes over and God has to kind of, I don't know, fit in with our present reality, if at all. Absolutely, it is so easy to be like Eli, Hophni and Phinehas and just stuff ourselves full and turn our backs on God and forget about honouring God.

It's easy to relegate God to one of the things that just has to fit into our days agenda but let me tell you something; God is no less real for the fact we can't physically see Him. He's no less powerful for the fact that we interact with Him by faith. God is God and solid ground is the place that Hannah knew.

I heard someone say once that peace is trusting in the sovereignty of God, Hannah knew that peace. For that very reason, in the eye of her perfect storm, in that place of taunts and disappointments and pains where she couldn't even utter the words when she poured her heart out to God, Hannah discovered Gods peace. Just a simple act of faith.

So many times, over these recent years for me, when the storms have blown in, so many times and you know, in a sense you're so inadequate to deal with those storms. People who come against you and circumstances and the finances and the things that really hurt and the things of real fear and we feel so inadequate.

Just kind of say, "well, I'll go and pray" but you know what that prayer of faith is, that prayer of anguish and pouring our hearts out before God, it's honouring Him as the sovereign God above all things, above all powers and dominions and circumstances and storms and listen again to Gods word, 1 Samuel chapter 2, verse 30 says:

God says, 'I will honour those who honour me and those who despise me will be treated with contempt.

Next week we're going to see how Gods contempt was poured out on Eli, Hophni and Phinehas and how Gods honour was carried out for Hannah through Samuel, her son. Haven't talked a lot about him this week but we will. We'll see that next week on the program. See God blesses Samuel and sets him up as the priest and the prophet and the judge over the whole of Israel, Gods blessing flows through him to Hannah, through the generations.

The question we need to ask ourselves is this; when I look at my life, do I look like Hannah or Eli? Cause that's how we figure out whether I someone who honours God, whether I see Him as the Kings of Kings and the Lord of Lords and sovereign above all things. Whether I go to Him and pour out my heart or whether I steal from Him. Make no mistake; God takes His honour and His glory very seriously – very seriously!