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Giving Back To God - The Word About Women

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The Ministry of Motherhood

  • Feb 25, 2021

The Ministry of Motherhood

Women’s Work

  • Feb 23, 2021

Women’s Work

The Truth About Mary Magdalene

  • Feb 18, 2021

The Truth About Mary Magdalene

The Good News Girls

  • Feb 16, 2021

The Good News Girls

Compassion for Women

  • Feb 11, 2021

Compassion for Women

Distracted with Much Serving

  • Feb 9, 2021

Distracted with Much Serving

No Throwing Stones

  • Feb 4, 2021

No Throwing Stones

She Was a Sinner

  • Feb 2, 2021

She Was a Sinner

The Eternal Thirst Quencher

  • Jan 28, 2021

The Eternal Thirst Quencher

The Laws of Love

  • Jan 26, 2021

The Laws of Love

Follow Him

  • Jan 21, 2021

Follow Him

Daughter, Your Faith Has Healed You

  • Jan 19, 2021

Daughter, Your Faith Has Healed You

In His Service

  • Jan 14, 2021

In His Service

Share in Their Joy

  • Jan 12, 2021

Share in Their Joy

Highly Favored One

  • Jan 7, 2021

Highly Favored One

The Value of a Woman

  • Jan 5, 2021

The Value of a Woman

See You in 2021

  • Nov 20, 2020

See You in 2021

In God’s Hands

  • Nov 19, 2020

In God’s Hands

A Disposable Woman?

  • Nov 17, 2020

A Disposable Woman?

A Bearer of Bad News

  • Nov 12, 2020

A Bearer of Bad News

A Wicked Queen Mother vs A Godly Princess

  • Nov 10, 2020

A Wicked Queen Mother vs A Godly Princess

A Heart for Hospitality

  • Nov 6, 2020

A Heart for Hospitality

The Willing Widow

  • Nov 4, 2020

The Willing Widow

A Wretched Woman

  • Nov 2, 2020

A Wretched Woman

Wicked Women

  • Oct 30, 2020

Wicked Women

Missed Opportunity

  • Oct 28, 2020

Missed Opportunity

How To Spot A Mother

  • Oct 26, 2020

How To Spot A Mother

A Wicked Thing

  • Oct 23, 2020

A Wicked Thing

Grace in the Genealogy

  • Oct 21, 2020

Grace in the Genealogy

Victim or Adulteress?

  • Oct 19, 2020

Victim or Adulteress?

A Relationship Ruined By Resentment

  • Oct 16, 2020

A Relationship Ruined By Resentment

Beauty, Brains, and a Blessing

  • Oct 14, 2020

Beauty, Brains, and a Blessing

Giving Back To God

  • Oct 12, 2020

Giving Back To God

Crimes Against Women

  • Oct 9, 2020

Crimes Against Women

When Women Are His Weakness

  • Oct 7, 2020

When Women Are His Weakness

Raising A Leader

  • Oct 5, 2020

Raising A Leader

A Redeemer

  • Oct 2, 2020

A Redeemer

A Dedicated Daughter-in-Law

  • Sep 30, 2020

A Dedicated Daughter-in-Law

A Woman With a Weapon

  • Sep 28, 2020

A Woman With a Weapon

The Leader of a Nation

  • Sep 25, 2020

The Leader of a Nation

The Faith of an Outsider

  • Sep 23, 2020

The Faith of an Outsider

The Daughters of Zelophehad

  • Sep 21, 2020

The Daughters of Zelophehad

The Prophetess

  • Sep 18, 2020

The Prophetess

A River Rescue

  • Sep 16, 2020

A River Rescue

The Temptress

  • Sep 14, 2020

The Temptress

The Double Standard

  • Sep 11, 2020

The Double Standard

A Daughter Defiled

  • Sep 9, 2020

A Daughter Defiled

Stolen Statues

  • Sep 7, 2020

Stolen Statues

The Unloved Wife

  • Sep 4, 2020

The Unloved Wife

A Meddling Matriarch

  • Sep 2, 2020

A Meddling Matriarch

Beyond Redemption?

  • Aug 31, 2020

Beyond Redemption?

A Salty Warning

  • Aug 28, 2020

A Salty Warning

Oppressed Yet Blessed

  • Aug 26, 2020

Oppressed Yet Blessed

The Mother of a Nation

  • Aug 24, 2020

The Mother of a Nation

The God Who Sees

  • Aug 21, 2020

The God Who Sees

Beautiful but Barren

  • Aug 19, 2020

Beautiful but Barren

Past Messages
BTBAplatform+ShannonLenz
ShannonOct 12, 2020 1:00 pm GMT
Giving Back To God

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 1:27-28

For context, read 1 Samuel 1 and 2:1-21

What is the one thing that you have prayed hardest for? Something that drove you to your knees, crying and pleading with God, completely pouring out your heart to Him? Imagine being granted that desire of your heart but then willingly giving that gift back to God forever.

That’s exactly what Hannah did. When we meet Hannah, she is a beloved but barren wife of Elkanah. He had two wives. Once again, we read a narrative of a man with two wives, one was barren and the other one had children. And as was often the case, the wife with children lorded it over the barren wife. Peninnah had several children and she would mock and humiliate Hannah over her barrenness. But it appears that Hannah handled this mistreatment with godly character and grace. No retaliation is mentioned on her part. Rather, we see her dealing with her pain by pouring out her heart to God and asking Him for help.

Her family went to Shiloh every year to worship and sacrifice to the LORD. Every year, Peninnah would make Hannah miserable with her ridicule. Elkanah tried to make her feel loved. But after so many years of pain and heartache, she could not be comforted. She went to the priest, Eli, and prayed to the LORD. She poured her heart out to Him but she did not make a sound. Only her lips moved as she vowed to the LORD that if He would answer her prayer for a son, then she would give him back to God as His servant for the rest of his life.

Eli, the priest, believed that she was drunk because she was not praying audibly and he only saw her lips move. But when she explained that she had been praying out of deep heartache and pain, Eli blessed her and said, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of Him” (1 Samuel 1:17).

The LORD answered her prayer. In time, she conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel. Samuel sounds like the Hebrew for “heard of God”. It would only be natural for Hannah to want to keep her boy and raise him to manhood. Now that Hannah had her prayers answered, would she make good on her promise to God?

She did. As soon as Samuel was weaned, Hannah took him to the tabernacle in Shiloh to live in service to the LORD for the rest of his life. Now, you might think that after dropping her son off at the tabernacle and leaving a piece of her heart behind for his whole life, that Hannah would return home with a broken, miserable heart. After all, she got what she prayed for and then had to give him up!

But that is not what we see Hannah doing. In 1 Samuel 2:1-10, we read Hannah’s Song of Thanksgiving. She rejoiced and worshipped after giving her son back to God. The LORD noticed her faithfulness and blessed her with 5 more children-3 sons and two daughters. And her son, Samuel? He went on to be a great judge in Israel as well as a prophet and priest. He was a lifelong servant of God and he served Him well.

There are many lessons we can take from Hannah’s story. Her grace in the midst of deep pain, her restraint to not retaliate against Peninnah, that she humbly sought the LORD to handle her problem rather than taking matters into her own hands like Sarah had done, her faithfulness to her vow, and her attitude of gratitude. But I think the greatest lesson we can learn from Hannah is that our children, and all other good gifts, come from God. They are on loan to us for His purposes and ultimately belong to Him.

The WORD about women in the story of Hannah is that God can work in mighty ways when we give His gifts to us right back to Him.

Reflect
If you are a parent, how can you give your children back to God in today’s context? If you are not a parent, how can you dedicate the gifts that God has given you to the Lord’s purposes?

Pray
Lord, I know that You have given me every good thing. Help me to remember that these good gifts are simply on loan from You. Help me to steward them well and give them back to You for Your purposes. Amen.

We look forward to your comments and questions below!

If you want to share this Bible reading plan with friends and family, here is the link:
https://bttb.org/word-about-women

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S
Sue
a year ago
Wow, very inspiring, a virtue to realize all things are possible in Christ.
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J
Judith
2 years ago
Thank you.
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