WTM JOURNAL
by Yuri Solomon 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) Yuri Solomon holds degrees from Gospel Ministry Outreach Theological Institute and the College of Biblical Studies. He is author of the book Biblical Masculinity. More info @ www.wordtalkonline.orgA Spirit-filled Mother's Vow
5/11/2015 / Devotionals
Every mother is not a good mother. A good mother learns how to be such from another mother (ideally her mother). See you will never be a good anything if you won't listen to anybody. Let me put an important point here... Spiritual mothers can only be found in the church. You are not going to teach what you have not been taught. You'll mistake essentials for preferences and preferences for essentials... (e.g. "I'm not going to raise my children like I was raised" "I want them to make their own decision about God this is often ignorance and folly.) A fool is someone who listens only to herself and thinks all who opposes her thinking are wrong. Put another way, a fool is a person that gets offended at criticism of them of any sort (as young people say today get out of your feelings.) That's barrenness!
Hannah was Barren! Barrenness means she had no children in the literal context... But "Barren" is one of those words that is pregnant with spiritual meaning. The first command of the scripture is to "Be fruitful and multiply" this is the whole of mankind's duty And barrenness is fruitlessness and in this sense is uselessness to God (That's what barrenness symbolizes in the Old Testament) We are all barren, fruitless, and useless in our immaturity. LET ME TRY TO MAKE SOME SPIRITUAL SENSE OF THIS TO YOU SAINTS: We were first dead in sin and after we've been made alive (born again), we are still barren and fruitless That's why children ideally don't have babies; they have not learned enough to raise them. That's why 1 John talks of little children, young men, and fathers. Those are stages of maturity. As far as physical maturity is concerned, you can have children and still not be a mother, but in spirituality, God will not give you spiritual children until he makes you a spiritual person... "Flesh only begets flesh but only spirit begets spirit". You do remember Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac? Ishmael was a son of Abram, and not a son of Abraham, a son of the flesh and not of the Spirit, a son of the old man and not a son of the new man... And no matter how Abraham begged God to let Ishmael be the son of promise, God had another son in mind. And no one can rescue us from our barrenness but God. In His mind and in His time, only He can bring you to fruitfulness. No one can fulfill you, satisfy you, take your burdens away, take your pain away but God.
Hannah was love by her husband Elkanah but His love was not enough to get her passed her barrenness, shame and ridicule. If you are not satisfied with yourself apart from man's love, you won't be satisfied by man's love or nothing else but God. You'll be too busy blaming others for what they cannot give you to fall on your knees and seek God. The challenge of emotional pain is not to look around at others casting blame but up to God for the soothing salve of His mercy and grace.
Hannah went to God and prayed and told Him specifically what she wanted and vowed the only proper response of a mother given the gift of a child by God. 1) Hannah gave Samuel back to the Lord that gave him to her as she vowed... 2) Hannah understood that Samuel was not hers but was her stewardship from God, 3) Hannah's prayer for relief really was participation in God's greater program for regime change (the end of the priesthood of Eli and his two wicked sons.) Samuel instituted the prophetic ministry and anointed the first and second Kings of Israel.