I Samuel 1 tells how Elkanah’s wife Hannah was tormented by her in-home rival, Elkanah’s other wife Peninnah, because Hannah had not borne a son. Verse 7 says: “It happened year after year, as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she would provoke her.” That phrase, “year after year,” is a touching one. It must have seemed to Hannah like this provocation would never end – but as we see in the rest of the chapter, it DID! When Hannah called out to the Lord in humility and despair, God heard her cry, and :20 tells us that she gave birth to a son.
This is a good reminder to us.

Many of us find ourselves in situations which seem never to change, never appear to get any better. We may experience these painful things, like Hannah did, “year after year” — and though we are still praying, in our hearts it is easy to surrender to the belief that these things are inevitable; they will just always be that way. But I Samuel 1 is a good reminder to us to be patient; to have faith; to WAIT on the Lord – things can indeed change in God’s time. Continue to pray, and wait and watch for God to do something for you — just like He did for Hannah. It may not necessarily have to be the way it is now, “year after year”!