Read 1 Samuel 2:1-10

There once was a woman who was steadfast in her faith and was loyal to the Lord and loved her husband. However, there was sadness in her heart. She was barren. For many years she could not conceive. She went before the Lord and surrendered all she had and promised Him her son if He would bless her womb.

The Lord answered her prayer.

I take away a lot of things from Hannah’s story. She walked faithfully with the Lord and believed He was who He said He was and served Him, despite the heartache and discontentment she experienced. Hannah knew that she could be raw and real and bring all of her hurt, pain and heartache to the Lord. There is a trust exchange between Hannah and the Lord.

Hannah has always been one of my favorite women of God’s word because. . . how many of us can relate with the principle of surrender and servanthood that Hannah displays?

When the Lord fulfilled her prayer and gave her Samuel, she did the one thing that I think would be hard for any mother to do: she gave her son back to the Lord to serve Him all his life.

Could you do this? Could I?

Twelve years ago, a great friend went on “The World Race”. This is a mission field where a group of people go to 11 different countries for 11 months. I remember sitting with my friend’s mother, inviting her to express her worries and fears with her daughter’s travels. She looked at me and simply said, “I may be afraid, but she was His before she was mine”.

You see, any parent would have an incredibly hard time surrendering their child to the unknown, but here is a woman who trusts in the Lord that she fulfilled her promise to not be in her son’s everyday life.

Hannah is an extraordinary woman because of the heart of surrender she displays and the trust exchange she has with the Lord.

I have to ask myself and, even ask you, when you read Hannah’s story, what do you see? What characteristics of her life and her love for the Lord speak to you? What in her story causes you to pause and look at your own life?

Take a moment and evaluate your life. Do you truly believe that everything belongs to God first?

Kelly Lawson