Coffee with Christ

I made my cup of coffee sprinkled with pumpkin spice seasoning and sat at my little glass desk to open up my Bible and read God's Word. I have been in the process of reading the Bible through by the end of the year, and today I started 1 Samuel. 

Growing up, I heard this story a hundred times, and reading it in chapter one of 1 Samuel was like going back to the little girl in junior church sitting on my coat on the cold fall Sunday morning, listening to the teacher tell this amazing story. At that age, I didn't fully appreciate or understand the wonderful characters God so skillfully created, nor the story of sacrifice God has laid as an example for all of us thousands of years later. If your unfamiliar with the story of 1 Samuel chapter one, I will give you a brief summary of this amazing story. But, you should go get your Bible (and if you don't have one go online to YouVersion and find it), and read it for yourself because it is beyond amazing.


There was a man in the land of  Ephraim whose name was Elkanah, and he had two wives. One of his wives was named Peninnah, and she had a lot of children. His other wife was named Hannah, and she was unable to have any children. As you can imagine, there was conflict between the two wives, and Penninah was pretty nasty to Hannah. She would make fun of her because she had no children, and she would degrade her as a woman. Hannah would weep because of her lack of children, but her husband did not understand her. See, Elkanah loved Hannah more than he loved Penninah, and thought that he was enough for her. If you're a woman (and even I, only 16, understand this), you know the deep longing for children in our hearts. 

One day, out of her deep sorrow, Hannah went to the temple to pray. She prayed earnestly and begged God for a child. The priest, (who at first thought she was drunk), told her to go her way, that her petition will be granted. Not long after, Hannah was pregnant. God had answered her prayers. She told her husband that she must take her son back to the temple and give him to God when he was weaned, so that he may serve the Lord. 


That last part is what stopped me in my tracks and made me write. 

Hannah, a woman of God, a woman who begged the Lord for a child day in and day out, got her prayers answered. She finally, finally had a son. What did she do?  She gave him right back to God at a very young age. She gave him to the priest, to serve in the temple. Can you imagine that? Take a minute to really, truly think about that. The child she had waited so long for, whom she loved so deeply. She gave him up to God, only able to see him once a year. She sacrificed her only desire, because she loved God. 


Oh, that you and I would be so willing to give up the things we love to our Savior. Oh that we wouldn't even give them a second thought, because we love the Lord so much more. Things we harbor deep in our hearts, the desires we have held on to and prayed would come to pass. The dreams we dream, the things we want for the future. Just immediately give them to God, because everything is His! He gave us Hannah to set an example of the sacrificial attitude we must have in order to follow God completely. Hannah, a little sneak peak of the great sacrifice God made so that we would know His love. 

I pray that I am able to sacrifice what I love just as Hannah did, and I pray that for you as well. We hold on to our desires, but until we give them to God, we will not be satisfied. 

And she said, “Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the Lord.For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord.”

 And he worshiped the Lord there.

1 Samuel 1: 26-28