Different people handle the rough times differently. Some seem to find peace in the middle of it all. For others, it's a complete disaster. Let's meet some people at different ends of that spectrum.

Over the last couple of days on the program we've been taking a look at how different people weather the storms of life. And in particular yesterday, we met Hannah, a woman who had been childless for years, taunted by others and in her pain, poured out her heart to God and discovered, when she did that, God gave her peace. And not only that but God answered her with a son and she gives that son back to God but what comes next is a prayer of thanksgiving and rejoicing. We'll take a look at that in a moment

And then we're going to look at some men, men who were around Hannah at the same time, priests in fact, Gods men but when Hannah knew how to approach God to get her feet on solid ground, these so called priests hadn't a clue. In fact, Hannah on the one hand and the priests, Eli and his sons on the other were like chalk and cheese. Opposite ends of the scale and the outcomes for each of them, in their storms, well they were at opposite ends of the scale too. My hunch is there's something in that for us so let's check it out. Now listen to what Hannah prayed when God gave her a son:

Hannah prayed and said, "My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted up. My mouth boasts over my enemies for I delight in your deliverance. There is no-one holy like the Lord; no-one beside you, there's no rock like our God. Don't keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance for the Lord is a God who knows and by Him deeds are weighed. The bows of warriors are broken but those who stumbled are armed with strength.

The prayer goes on and on, you can read it in the book of 1 Samuel chapter 2 and you know what it's all about; it's about the power and the sovereignty of God, it's about a Hannah who went to God with this in her heart, that God is above all things, not to reform God in her own image. Do you know how I know that? Because when she poured out her heart to God, she offered her son back and she honoured that promise.

That's a challenge for each one of us, about how we go to God. How we see Him, as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords or as some performing puppy that jumps when we say jump. How can we tell the difference? See it's very hard to discern our hearts sometimes, how can we tell the difference between a right and a wrong attitude towards God? Well lets go back to this 1 Samuel book in chapter 2. We're going to meet Eli and his sons, the priests:

Eli's sons were wicked men; they had no regard for God. Now it was the practice of the priests with the people that whenever anyone offered a sacrifice to God and while the meat was being boiled, the servant of the priest would come with a 3 pronged fork in his hand. He'd plunge it into the pan or the kettle or the cauldron or the pot and the priest would take for himself whatever the fork brought up. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh.

But even before the fat was burned, the servant of the priest would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, "Give the priests some meat to roast. He won't accept boiled meat from you, only the raw stuff." If the man said to him, "Well let the fat be burned up first and then take whatever you want", the servant would answer, "No, hand it over now, if you don't I'll take it by force." The sin of the young men was very great in the Lords sight for they were treating the Lords offering with contempt.

See, the way we tell the difference is through how we behave. Hannah could have complained and fought back and acted up badly when she didn't have a child. She could have lashed out at her husband and grumbled to God yet, in her pain, she went to God humbly and asked Him to bless her and He honoured that.

See, it's an amazing truth, its one of those pivotal passages in the Bible that tells us a huge amount about why, when we have a wrong heart towards God, things go badly. It's in 1 Samuel chapter 2, verse 30:

For those who honour me, (says God) I will honour and those who despise me, I shall treat with contempt.

And what you read in the remainder of chapter 2, starting at verse 27, is that God deals with Eli and his two sons. He sends a prophet to Eli and this is what happens, the prophet says:

This is what God says, "Didn't I clearly reveal myself to your father's house when they were in Egypt under Pharaoh? I chose your father, out of all the tribes of Israel, to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod in my presence. I gave your father's house all the offerings made with fire by the Israelites. Why do you scorn my sacrifice and offering that I've prescribed for my dwelling?

Why do you honour your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering?" Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel declares: 'I promise that your house and your fathers house would minister before me forever but now the Lord declares, far be it for me for those who honour me I will honour but those who despise me I will despise. The time is coming when I will cut short the strength and the strength of your father's house so that there will not be a single old man in your family and you will see the stress in my dwelling.

And then he goes on, this prophet, to say all the horrible things that are going to happen to Eli and his two sons. Even to the point where he says:

This will be a sign to you. Your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, they will die on the same day and I'll find myself another priest, I will establish him and his house and he will minister before me and this boy Samuel, ministered the Lord under Eli.

See, there it is; the priests were in a position of power and authority and responsibility and they didn't honour God. In their words or their deeds they rejected Him and God dealt with them. We'll have a look at what happens to them next week.

Hannah, on the other hand, well she's like chalk and cheese when you compare her to Eli, Hophni and Phinehas. Hannah's this lowly of lowly, the priests are up there on the social religious register and yet that makes no difference to God because He says:

I will honour those who honour me and those who despise me shall be treated with contempt.

What Gods saying here is, "well, if I can't change the people, I'm going to change the people", and He did and Eli, Hophni and Phinehas end up dying and young Samuel, Hannah's boy, this Hannah who honoured God, young Samuel is the one who's blessed.

You know it's easy to ignore the invisible God, to just go our own way and then to blame our storms on everyone else but deep down in our hearts we know don't we? We know that when we front up to God, in humility, the way Hannah did, He honours that; He just does. And when we live our lives like Eli and his sons, well God's about to show up in our storms and not the way we wanted Him to.

We can ignore Him and deny Him and remonstrate all we like but deep in our hearts we just know that God honours those who honour Him and He despises those who despise Him. Come on people, there is a direct link between how we behave towards God and what happens in our storms. This picture of Hannah in deep distress, going to God, asking for a son in humility is such a beautiful picture.

You see, we feel so weak in those storms don't we? We feel as though there's nothing we can do. And God shows us through these stories, it's not about the position we have or the power we have or how much we get to eat or how well we get rewarded in this world, it's not about any of those things. It's about whether or not we bow down and we honour God.