Today we celebrate Mother’s day and baby/infant dedication. What a beautiful act is displayed in a baby dedication! God honors such actions. I think it is our desire to learn more about what it means to dedicate ourselves and our children to God. That is what I want to help with today. For a text please turn to I Samuel chapter 1. In this text a childless mother prays for and is given a baby boy. She in turn dedicates that child to God. The ladies name is Hannah. Her child’s name is Samuel. The word Samuel means “Heard of God.” It signified the special circumstances under which Samuel was born. Samuel was a strategic leader in the life of the Israelite people. He served a transitional period in the history of Israel. He served in the interim period between the judges and the kings. Samuel was one of God’s big league servants. (refer to Jer. 15:1 & Ps. 99:6) There is an encouraging thought behind this passage. God used Hannah to raise a strategic player in His service. God may be using you, as parents, to raise an important leader for our nation, our schools or our churches.
Take a look at Hannah and learn from her. We see Hannah’s commitment to parenthood in at least four ways.
1. She prayed desperately for a child. (see 1:11)
2. She prioritized the rearing of her child. Each year their family made an annual pilgrimage to offer a special sacrifice to the Lord. When Samuel was a baby Hannah did not make the trip. She determined that Samuel was her focus at the time. She knew her priorities.(see 1:21-22)
3. She dedicated her child to God. (see 1:28)
4. She was faithful to the responsibility of parenting. She considered it an honor to be a parent. (see Ps. 127:3-4) In fact, in their society it was considered a disgrace to be without children. In our society that is not the case. Some people choose to remain childless. Hannah was burdened by her childlessness. As God blessed her with a child she gave her very best to the responsibility of rearing the child. We see an example of this in chapter 2 verse 18. Samuel was serving in the Lord’s house. The Bible tells us every year Hannah made him a special robe. She was faithful in her duty.
Hannah was a good example of dedication and a good example of a Godly mother. What can we learn from her that will help us in our walk with the Lord? I want to share three commitments, which Hannah made, which every parent and every person should make.
I. The first commitment of a Godly mother is to Commit your situation to God.
A. Sometimes we find ourselves in difficult situations.
Joke: Chuch Swindle tells a humorous story that illustrates this point. There was a man walking down the streets of Belfast, Ireland, on his way home. Over the years there has been much unrest between Catholics and Protests on the streets of Belfast. This man was worried as he walked home that night. True to his fears a man jumped out of the shadows and stuck the point of a knife to this man’s throat. In a gruff voice the assailant asked “Catholic or Protestant.” Seized with panic the man reasoned to himself, “If I say Catholic and he’s a Protestant---whoosh! If I say Protestant and he’s a Catholic, I’m a goner! Then he thought of a way out. He said, “I’m a Jew!” The assailant chuckled, “Ha! I’m the luckiest Arab terrorist in Belfast.!”
Sometimes we find ourselves in difficult situations. Think about Hannah. She was involved in a polygamous marriage. In addition, she was the object of scorn of the other wife in the relationship. In 1:6 we read where the other woman taunted Hannah because of her childlessness. In their society childlessness was considered a disgrace. So Hannah was feeling disgrace, ridicule and was involved in a jealous squabble. Hers was not an easy situation. The important thing we learn from Hannah is that she committed her situation to God.
It is not always easy to give God the situations in our lives. I heard about a woman who for many years couldn’t sleep at night because she worried that her home would be burglarized. One night her husband heard a noise in the house, so he went downstairs to investigate. When he got there, he found a burglar. The husband said to the burglar, "Come upstairs and meet my wife. She has been waiting 10 years to meet you."
A real burglar can steal from you once. Worry can steal from you night after night, for many years. Worry not only steals our sleep, but worry also steals our health and our abilities to cope with life productively.
(Contributed to Sermon Central by Dana Chau)
All of us can laugh and agree with that story but the truth is we must place our trust in God and allow Him to be in control of our situation.
- Maybe you are in an unjust situation?
- Maybe you are single and desire to be married?
- Maybe you are without a job?
- Maybe you are unhappy with your job?
- Maybe you are a single parent raising
children by yourself?
- Maybe you are burdened, as was Hannah, about
having a child?
Illustration: There is an old gospel song that states “Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.” Hannah did this and God wants you and I to do this as well.
B. We must learn to trust the grace of God and the sovereignty of God.
Illustration: Suppose you are standing behind a little senior adult lady at the bank who is one of the most trustworthy people you know. Imagine there is a long line at the bank. You are holding $1,000 cash with a completed deposit ticket. You have fifteen minutes before your lunch break is over. As you stand in line you realize your time is running out and you must return to work. The senior adult lady politely offers to make your deposit so that you can return to work. What would you do? The thought of handing $1,000 to that lady, while you go back to work, would be a challenge. If that is to occur you must learn to trust that senior adult lady. Trust doesn’t come naturally. Trust has to be learned. In the same way we learn to trust other people, we must also learn to trust God.
It helps to learn trust if we are reminded that God can take any situation and bring glory to His name. God is sovereign and He is in control of every situation...even when we may not believe it. Consider the following examples.
Example: Jesus was born to a virgin who conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. That was an awkward situation for Joseph and Mary but they trusted God with the situation.
Example: David was the youngest and least likely of Jesse’s children to be chosen as the king of Israel and yet God chose him.
Example: Mary Magdalene was a convert who had been delivered from demon possession and yet she was one of the first people to witness the miraculous resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Example: Abe Lincoln was born in a log cabin to two poor parents and yet rose to become one of our greatest presidents.
God can handle awkward situations.
II. The second commitment of a Godly mother is to Commit your self to God. Hannah’s commitment was displayed by a commitment to prayer. A praying person will display several actions that reflect the commitment of their heart.
A. A praying person is a humble person. You cannot be a true prayer warrior without humbling your heart before God.
B. A praying person depends on God.
Illustration: Once there were these 3 guys who needed to get to a town called Perfection in one day. Perfection was 200 km away. One guy decided to save money and walk all the way. He started off at 6 in the morning. He only walked for a few hours and managed to cover 20 km. After that he was too pooped to carry on so he gave up and didn’t make it. The second guy decided to ride a bicycle. He rode and rode and he had to take constant breaks because he would get so tired. The road wasn’t always flat. Sometimes he had to ride uphill and that was tough. Sometimes he got a free ride downhill. But he still had to expend a lot of effort. After 10 exhausting hours, he finally got there. But it had been a tremendous struggle and it took almost everything out of him. The third guy decided to get someone to drive him there. All he had to do was sit in the car. He got there in only three hours, fresh as a daisy. So, perfection is similar. If you’re trying to aim for perfection by yourself, you’ll never hit it. You’ll give up even before you’re halfway there. You’ll be so tired you’ll collapse from exhaustion. If you only partially depend on God, then you might get there but it’ll be tough and you’ll be totally exhausted. The key to Perfection is to totally depend on God. But you must make the decision to trust God and get into the car and let Him drive you. And inside the car, you still have to abide by the rules. You can’t do things like stick your head of the window. (Not unless you’re a dog.) You can’t fool around with the gear shift or the steering wheel. You’re like a passenger without a driving licence. You have to behave. You have to do your part. You have to obey the driver, God. Then your road to Perfection will be much easier.
(Contributed to Sermon Central by David Gwee)
C. A committed person walks with God. As you study Hannah’s life you discover that she walked with God. She walked with Him in prayer. She worshipped Him in spirit. She gave Him credit and honor for His blessings. Hannah’s humility, dependency and walk with God reflected her commitment of herself to God.
III. The third commitment of a Godly mother is to commit your best to God. Hannah did something that may seem a little radical to some of us. She promised God (1:11) that if He would give her a male child she would dedicate the child to God. In verse 28 we find this promise fulfilled. Samuel grew up serving and living in the Lord’s house. That is hard for our modern minds to comprehend. Even though it is hard for us to understand Samuel’s situation, there are several important principles we can learn from this story.
Principle: as parents we should see ourselves as stewards. A steward is someone who performs a job for another. Our children do not belong to us. They belong to God. We are merely raising them for Him. That should be true of everything we possess.
Principle: as parents we should be willing to release our children so that they may realize their fullest potential in God’s service. One of the greatest temptations we face as parents is holding too tightly to our children. Someone has said our job as parents is “to give our children wings and help them fly.”
Principle: This brings us to a third principle and the real reason why we dedicate our children to God. He knows what to do with them far better than we as parents.
Example: Suppose I own an antique car that I have built. I know every bolt in that car. I know every intricacy of that car. I know every weakness in that car. Who is most qualified to work on that car…me or a perfect stranger? Even so, God is most qualified to manage our children. He made them! They belong to Him! We should dedicate them to His service.
Samuel represented the very best Hannah possessed. She was willing to dedicate her son to God. She did not cling to him. She released him to God.
