Intro
Question
What do you want most in the
whole world? If you could think of one thing, anything, what would it be and
why?
Scripture:
1 Samuel 1:1-11
There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from
the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of
Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an
Ephraimite. 2 He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other
Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.
3 Year after year this man went up from his town to
worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty
at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were
priests of the Lord. 4 Whenever the day came for
Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife
Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. 5 But to Hannah he gave a
double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb. 6 Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her
rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. 7 This went on year after
year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not
eat. 8 Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping?
Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten
sons?”
9 Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah
stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of
the Lord’s house. 10 In her deep
anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord,
weeping bitterly. 11 And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty,
if You will only look on Your servant’s misery and remember me, and not
forget Your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his
life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”
What does Hannah want
most in the whole world? (A son.)
And what does Samuel
say she will do if God gives her a son? (She says she will dedicate her son to
God and give him to the priest.)
Have you ever tried
to make a deal like with God? Have you ever said, “God, if you will grant this
prayer, then I will do this for You”? Did it work? And did you do what you said
you were going to do?
When Hannah had a
baby, what did she name him? (Samuel.)
And what did Hannah do
with Samuel when he was old enough? (She gave him to Eli the priest.)
Hannah kept her
promise to God and gave Samuel to God. Do you think it was easy for Hannah to
do that? Do you think God was pleased with Hannah’s decision to dedicate Samuel
to God?
I think God honored
Hannah for her prayer and for following through with her commitment. She took
her most cherished possession, her son, and gave him to God. My question to you
this week is what can you dedicate to God? What in your life, can you say,
“This belongs to God”?
What if God has given
you a talent for doing something? Can you say that whenever you use that
talent, you’re going to be doing it for God?
If you have a
personality that makes it easy for you to make friends, can you say that you’re
going to use that part of yourself to make friends with others and be a good
influence on them for God?
Since we all have
some time in the day, can you say that you’re going to dedicate a little bit of
time each day to God?
There are different
areas of our lives that we can dedicate to God in a special way, but over all
of those things, we have to remember that as Christians, God wants us to
dedicate our whole lives to Him. Hannah gave all of Samuel to God, and God wants
us to give all of ourselves to Him.
Hannah prayed that
God would give her a son, and when that son was born, she gave Him to God
because she knew that God had given that child life. We know that God has also
created us and given us life. We owe our very existence to God, and so God asks
us to give our lives back to Him by serving Him and living for Him as best we
can.
God created you
because He wants you, so let Him have you by dedicating your whole self to Him.
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