The Hannah Spirit, Part 7: The Altar of Surrender
Because Hannah did not only surrender her pain. She surrendered her desire. And sometimes.....desire is harder to lay on the altar than grief.
She carried grief. She endured provocation. She practiced restraint. She had poured out her soul before the Lord. She had been misunderstood by Eli and still answered with clarity.
But tucked inside her prayer is something we can't rush past.
Hannah made a vow.
The Bible says, “And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life.” (1 Samuel 1:11)
That's surrender. Hannah was not merely asking God to give her something. She was offering back to God the very thing she was asking Him for.
Before Samuel was ever conceived, before she ever held him, before she ever heard his cry, saw his face, or knew the weight of him in her arms, she had already placed him on the altar.
That searches me! It gets me all in my feels! Because it is one thing to ask God for what our hearts desire. It's another thing to say, “Lord, if You give it, it still belongs to You.”
That is the altar of surrender.
It's the place where desire stops being possessive and becomes consecrated. The place where longing bows. The place where we bring God not only the pain of what we lack, but also the desire for what we hope to receive.
Sometimes.....we think surrender only happens when we let go of something painful.
But Hannah shows us that surrender also happens when we let God have authority over the thing(s) we desperately want. That's not easy! When you have prayed long for something, waited long for something, cried long over something, there can be a temptation to clutch it when it finally comes!
Almost like we're saying, “This is mine.”
My answer.
My promise.
My ministry.
My calling.
My child.
My breakthrough.
My testimony.
But Hannah’s prayer had a different spirit.
She said, “If You give him to me, I will give him to You.” That's consecrated and set-apart desire that is placed under the lordship of God.
There is nothing wrong with wanting what God has put in your heart.
Hannah wanted a son. She was honest about that. She didn't spiritualize it away. She didn't pretend the longing wasn't there because it wasn't happening. She didn't act like wanting something deeply made her less faithful.
She allowed that longing to pass through surrender because it is yielded. I think this is one of the most mature places in her story. She wasn't bargaining with God in a shallow way.
This was deeper than that. Her heart had come to the place where the answer itself would not become an idol. She wanted Samuel. But she wanted God to have Samuel more.
Because the question is not only, “Can I trust God with what I lack?" Sometimes the real question is, “Can God trust me with what He gives?”
Can He trust me to hold the answer with open hands?
Can He trust me to love the gift without worshiping the gift?
Can He trust me to receive the promise without making it my identity?
Can He trust me to steward what He births through me?
Can He trust me to say, “This came from You, and it belongs to You”?
The Hannah spirit understands that answered prayer is not the end of surrender. Sometimes answered prayer requires even deeper surrender.
Can He trust me to hold the answer with open hands?
Can He trust me to love the gift without worshiping the gift?
Can He trust me to receive the promise without making it my identity?
Can He trust me to steward what He births through me?
Can He trust me to say, “This came from You, and it belongs to You”?
The Hannah spirit understands that answered prayer is not the end of surrender. Sometimes answered prayer requires even deeper surrender.
Before the answer, we surrender the ache.
After the answer, we surrender the gift.
Hannah’s vow teaches us that what is born from prayer must remain consecrated to God.
That is true of more than children.
It is true of callings, ministries, testimonies, platforms, and spiritual gifts. It is true of the things God births in hidden places.
Sometimes we pray for God to bring something forth, but when He does, we forget that the purpose of the birth was never just our relief. Samuel wasn't born only to heal Hannah’s ache. He was born for the purposes of God. That doesn't mean that Hannah’s pain did not matter.
It did.
God saw her. He heard her. He remembered her. But His answer to Hannah also carried a purpose beyond Hannah.
And that is how God often works.
He meets us personally, but what He does in us is not always meant to stop with us. The very place where Hannah had suffered became the place where God brought forth a prophet. The private prayer of one sorrowful woman became part of the public turning of a nation.
Now THAT is wild to think about!
Hannah couldn't have known the full weight of Samuel’s life when she prayed that prayer.
She didn't know he would become a prophet. She didn't know that he would anoint kings.
She did not know he would stand in a pivotal place in Israel’s history.
She only knew that she was asking God for a son.
But....because she surrendered him before she received him, Samuel’s life was already marked as belonging to the Lord.
The power of consecration! It places the answer under God’s purpose before human hands ever hold it.
What about our own altars?
What have we asked God for that we still want to control?
After the answer, we surrender the gift.
Hannah’s vow teaches us that what is born from prayer must remain consecrated to God.
That is true of more than children.
It is true of callings, ministries, testimonies, platforms, and spiritual gifts. It is true of the things God births in hidden places.
Sometimes we pray for God to bring something forth, but when He does, we forget that the purpose of the birth was never just our relief. Samuel wasn't born only to heal Hannah’s ache. He was born for the purposes of God. That doesn't mean that Hannah’s pain did not matter.
It did.
God saw her. He heard her. He remembered her. But His answer to Hannah also carried a purpose beyond Hannah.
And that is how God often works.
He meets us personally, but what He does in us is not always meant to stop with us. The very place where Hannah had suffered became the place where God brought forth a prophet. The private prayer of one sorrowful woman became part of the public turning of a nation.
Now THAT is wild to think about!
Hannah couldn't have known the full weight of Samuel’s life when she prayed that prayer.
She didn't know he would become a prophet. She didn't know that he would anoint kings.
She did not know he would stand in a pivotal place in Israel’s history.
She only knew that she was asking God for a son.
But....because she surrendered him before she received him, Samuel’s life was already marked as belonging to the Lord.
The power of consecration! It places the answer under God’s purpose before human hands ever hold it.
What about our own altars?
What have we asked God for that we still want to control?
What desire have we prayed about, but not surrendered?
What promise are we hoping for that we would be tempted to clutch if it came?
What calling have we wanted God to birth, but secretly hoped would also prove something about us?
What answer are we asking for that needs to be placed on the altar before it ever arrives?
These aren't small questions, I understand that. And I understand that they reach into tender places.
But, I also understand that the altar of surrender is tender by nature. It's not God ripping desire out of our hands. It's us opening our hands because we trust Him with the desire.
Hannah’s surrender didn't make her love Samuel less, it made her love rightly. She could receive him as a gift without forgetting he belonged to God. She could nurture him without possessing him. She could rejoice over him without making him her god.
That's both beautiful and costly. The Hannah spirit is NOT a woman without desire. It's a woman whose desire has passed through surrender. It's the woman who can ask boldly and still yield deeply. It's the woman who can say, “Lord, remember me,” and also say, “Lord, what You give me belongs to You.” It's the woman who understands that the altar is not only where pain is poured out, it's also where desire is laid down.
There comes a moment when the deepest prayer is not only, “God, give this to me.” Sometimes the deeper prayer is, “God, if You give this to me, teach me how to give it back to You.”
THAT'S the altar of surrender.
And THAT is where desire becomes consecrated.
What answer are we asking for that needs to be placed on the altar before it ever arrives?
These aren't small questions, I understand that. And I understand that they reach into tender places.
But, I also understand that the altar of surrender is tender by nature. It's not God ripping desire out of our hands. It's us opening our hands because we trust Him with the desire.
Hannah’s surrender didn't make her love Samuel less, it made her love rightly. She could receive him as a gift without forgetting he belonged to God. She could nurture him without possessing him. She could rejoice over him without making him her god.
That's both beautiful and costly. The Hannah spirit is NOT a woman without desire. It's a woman whose desire has passed through surrender. It's the woman who can ask boldly and still yield deeply. It's the woman who can say, “Lord, remember me,” and also say, “Lord, what You give me belongs to You.” It's the woman who understands that the altar is not only where pain is poured out, it's also where desire is laid down.
There comes a moment when the deepest prayer is not only, “God, give this to me.” Sometimes the deeper prayer is, “God, if You give this to me, teach me how to give it back to You.”
THAT'S the altar of surrender.
And THAT is where desire becomes consecrated.
Comments
Post a Comment