Heroes: Devotions From Time of Grace MinistrySample

SACRIFICE: HANNAH

Has anyone in your family struggled with infertility? Have you? One of the seeming injustices of human life is that people who have no business having children seem to conceive easily, while couples with
secure homes and lives and empty arms try and try and wait for a baby that never comes.

Hannah was one of those infertile women with a broken heart. What made matters worse was that she had to live in a polygamous marriage. Her co-wife had children, and she provoked and taunted Hannah about it.

Hannah prayed intensely and vowed that if God gave her a son, she would give him back to God. Her prayer was answered, and she kept her vow.

She told Eli the high priest, "‘As surely as you live, my lord, 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.' . . . Then Hannah prayed and said, ‘My heart rejoices in the LORD." (1 Samuel 1:26–2:1)

Only a mother could fully appreciate the cost of her sacrifice. She called her little boy Sh'mu-El ("heard by God"), and he became a great leader of the nation. Hannah is my hero.