Follow Through

Follow Through
Words of Faith 7-31-24
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2024
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL
www.faithfellowshipweb.com
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1 Samuel 1
[19] Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the LORD and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah lay with Hannah, his wife, and the LORD remembered her. [20] So in the course of time, Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, "Because I asked the LORD for him." [21] When the man Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the LORD and to fulfill his vow, [22] Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, "After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the LORD, and he will live there always." [23] "Do what seems best to you," Elkanah her husband told her. "Stay here until you have weaned him; only may the LORD make good his word." So, the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

Shortly after Hannah's fervent and transparent prayer before the Lord, she conceived a child and, in due course, bore a son whom she named Samuel. The name is an interesting one. The Hebrew literally means "his name is God" or something similar, but it rhymes with the phrase meaning "asked of God and heard." So Samuel is taken to mean "because I asked the LORD for him."
At the next annual festival, Elkanah went to Shiloh to offer sacrifice to the Lord, but this time, he also paid his vow to the Lord. This payment of the vow must have consisted of the offering of Samuel himself, whom Elkanah had promised to give if the Lord answered their prayers for a son.
Since Samuel was not yet weaned and dependent on his mother, Hannah stayed behind with him. Elkanah saw the wisdom in this and agreed, but he wanted to be sure of something. It seems he went on and made an offering because he was fearful that Samuel's temporary withholding might bring disfavor before the Lord. Elkanah prayed that the Lord might make good His word.
Follow-through is good. Today, we know we don't operate in a spiritual environment based upon "dealing" with God. We are blessed to be under His precious grace. But it is nonetheless a good thing to honor commitments that we have made to the Lord.
Committing Samuel to the service of the Lord was not an idle or rash statement. It was not an emotional exclamation. This was a sincere desire before the Lord to bear a child and commit him to the service of the Lord. Elkanah and Hannah might have determined other priorities were now more important. They might have decided that young Samuel was too cute to let go of. They might have thought of all the games they would miss and family events that would be different if Samuel was a part of the Temple and not their home. But they honored their commitment.
I am glad that we don't live in a time when it is an option to commit a child to the service of the Temple and the Lord. We tend to raise children in the way they should, hoping that when they are old, they will not depart from it. But we do make commitments. We commit ourselves to people through marriage and family. We commit ourselves to friends, employees, and employers. We commit ourselves to missions and ministries. We commit ourselves to our church family and the vision that God has revealed there. These are commitments that we need to honor.
Commitments are important to honor even when times change, and we are tempted to shift priorities. We can rationalize just about anything if we try hard enough. But commitments are essential. Jesus said: Let your Yes be Yes and your No be No. Do what you say. Keep the faith in Him and one another.
Have you been keeping your commitments before God? Such a reflection is not about legalism; it is about integrity. Have you been keeping the bonds and promises made? Have you been carrying through on the efforts you began with others-- even though it got difficult for a while? Maybe this is a time to make an offering before God-- an offering of yourself and your resolve to walk in what you have laid out as your intention in life. With God's help, you can do it.

Lord, draw me close to You so that I may recommit myself to You and follow through on my commitments. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2024
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)
2820 Business Center Blvd.
Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2024 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.