The Monday Memo from John Stanko

832: You Can't Out-Give God

Two weeks ago, we looked at the life of Hannah in our women of purpose in the Bible series. We saw how Hannah had given her first child to the Lord before she ever gave birth and then followed through on her commitment by yielding the child to serve with Eli, the priest who had misjudged and then ignored her as she poured her heart out to the Lord.

It may strike someone, maybe even you, that the entire process Hannah went through was a bit "unfair." Hannah agonized over her childless state while her rival wife, Peninnah, had multiple births and then somehow antagonized Hannah, "rubbing it in" that Hannah was childless while Peninnah was fertile.

After much pain and suffering, Hannah finally gave birth, but then carried her young son off to be raised in a monastery of sorts, only to see him every now and then for the rest of her life, making a new garment for him every year. All godly parents dedicate their children to the Lord's service, but usually that child stays with them until they are of the age to go off for training. In Hannah's case, Samuel went off as a toddler and, in a sense, Hannah was once again childless.

THE REST OF THE STORY

If the story ended there, it would seem a bit unfair, but God is a just God, and it is impossible to out-give Him. First, God revived Hannah's reputation in the house of God. Whereas before Eli ignored her, he eventually blessed her every time he saw her:

But Samuel was ministering before the Lord—a boy wearing a linen ephod. Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice. Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, “May the Lord give you children by this woman to take the place of the one she prayed for and gave to the Lord.” Then they would go home (1 Samuel 2:18-20).

Then Hannah's personal worship life took on a whole new meaning and we read in 1 Samuel 2:1-10 her song to the Lord. Here is part of her song:

"My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance.There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God (1 Samuel 2:1-2).

It doesn't seem like Hannah resented giving her son to the Lord, does it? Sometimes the best aspect of giving is the joy the giver receives!

The best part of Hannah's story, however, is recorded in 1 Samuel 2:21: "And the Lord was gracious to Hannah; she gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord." God gave Hannah five more children after Samuel! What's more, Samuel, the son she surrendered to the Lord, is still speaking to God's people today while we don't even know the names of one of Peninnah's children.

WHAT'S GOD ASKING YOU FOR?

If God is asking you to surrender something to Him before you have it, it is so you will not attempt to shape, control, or minimize what He ultimately wants to do for you. You may be approaching the end of the year, and you are facing another barren year behind, not like anything you wanted it to be. Yet you cannot quit or give up, and something in you is asking you to commit your future to the Lord, the future you hope to have but for some reason have not seen come to pass. I urge you to do what Hannah did, and then be encouraged by Hannah's story. Surrender your future to the Lord, follow through on the commitment, worship God, and then watch Him work on your behalf in a way that will astound you.

That is certainly my testimony as 2017 comes to a close. God has taken what I surrendered to Him years ago, before I had anything, and made it a fruitful work that I love. None of it looks like I thought it would 30 years ago, but God has surpassed all that I could imagine back then. Therefore, I am not only encouraging you from the biblical story of Hannah; I am encouraging you with my own personal testimony. God is good and I have found again and again that no one can out-give him, but it's fun trying. Have a blessed week!

831: Giving It to the Lord

Last week, we looked at Hannah's story as part of our women of purpose series. I want to return to Hannah this week to see what else we can learn, man or woman, from this woman of faith.

MISUNDERSTOOD

In the last Monday Memo, I pointed out that God required Hannah to give her child to Him before she had an y children to give. That meant she was so convinced that she would conceive that she surrendered her son to God before she ever laid eyes on him in the natural, promising she would not comb his hair. That indicated that she would not try to shape and fashion what God was doing in her child's life to her own satisfaction.

All that sounds super spiritual, which it was, but as soon as Hannah made this commitment, she was tested in two ways that involved the same man, Eli the chief priest. First, as Hannah prayed, she moved her lips but did not make a sound; her prayers were silent groans of unfulfilled purpose:

As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine" (1 Samuel 1:12-14).

As if Hannah was not already in enough pain, she had to endure the biting and sarcastic criticism from the man of God. Eli did not properly discern what Hannah was going through, and did not bother to make inquiries. He simply jumped to a conclusion that Hannah was drunk, and curtly chastised her. After Hannah explained, Eli did not apologize or investigate the cause for Hannah's agony, so that he could stand with her in prayer. Probably embarrassed, he sought to dismiss her as quickly as possible: “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him" (1 Samuel 1:17).

GIVING IT TO THE LORD - REALLY

God heard Hannah's prayer (not Eli's) and she conceived and brought forth a son whom she named Samuel. Hannah had made a vow in her distress, and once the pain was gone, she was not going to back away from the vow. As soon as the child was weaned, she took him back to house of the Lord to be raised there by the very man who had misjudged her spiritual condition. This man was not worthy of Hannah's sacrifice, but Hannah had given her situation to the Lord, and she was not going to renege on her vow:

After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. When the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli, and she said to him, “Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there (1 Samuel 1:24-28).

The lessons for us are clear from this story. Your purpose belongs to God; you cannot seize it to use as you see fit. When you give your purpose future to the Lord, He will use it as He sees fit, perhaps investing or injecting you into situations that are not to your liking or that do not fully appreciate the sacrifice you are making. Finally, when you make a commitment to the Lord to do something, especially a vow you made in your pain, you need to follow through on your commitment when the pain is gone and God has answered your prayer. Next week, we will look at one more lesson from Hannah's purposeful life. Until then, make sure you have a blessed week.

830: Purpose Hair

I am back from a wonderful trip to Nigeria where I made many new friends. It's time this week to resume our series on women of purpose in the Bible, and this week we will look at Hannah's story in the opening chapters of 1 Samuel. I did a search of all my Monday Memos, and I am surprised that I have never written about Hannah before this, but I have taught from her story many times, so now it's time to write her story as well.

CHILDLESS

Hannah was one of Elkanah's two wives, and we are told that Elkanah loved her more than his other wife named Penninah, which was small consolation for Hannah who was childless. The stigma of not having children was so overwhelming then that Hannah was almost inconsolable over her condition and her rival wife used her child-bearing ability to irritate Hannah and perhaps to try and win Elkanah's favor. This situation drove Hannah to her knees as she sought the Lord for relief from the burden she had to bear. As she sought the Lord, she made an interesting vow:

“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" (1 Samuel 1:11).

Even though she was childless, she was surrendering to the Lord what she did not have. She abandoned her motherly instinct to help shape her child's life ("no razor will ever be used"), refusing to put her hands to try and mold what would come forth from the child in the way of gifts, calling, and purpose. It is a magnificent faith gesture that Hannah gave to God what she did not have, and what she was believing Him to give her.

Like Hannah, you may be waiting for your purpose, and you see others around you who are finding and flowing in theirs. Perhaps God is asking you to yield your purpose to Him, to abandon any tendency to shape it according to what you think looks best, before you know what it is. I did that as I waited for many long years to be released into my purpose. I vowed that I would go wherever God wanted me to go and say what He wanted me to say, and that vow has led me to Africa. My purpose hair grew in a way that God desired, and I have not tried to comb, color, or fashion it - I have just let it grow in the way that God wanted it to grow.

GIVE IT TO THE LORD

I did not choose my work in Africa; it chose me. God had something special in mind for Hannah, just like He did for me, but it required both of us to seek Him and surrender to His will. It involved tearful expressions of anguish and pain that were all part of God's plan. God gave Hannah a son, and He gave me a purpose. Both the son and my purpose grew to be something neither one of us could have imagined beforehand. Perhaps the same will be true for you. If so, it all starts with giving to God what He hasn't yet given to you, and promising not to try and comb your purpose hair whenever it starts to grow. We will return to Hannah's story next week, but in the meantime, have a blessed week!