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1 Samuel 1:10 – 11; 19 – 28

Highlighting – “She made a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and a razor shall never come on his head.” (v. 11)

For this boy I prayed, and the Lord has given me my petition which I asked of Him.  So I have also dedicated him to the Lord; as long as he lives he is dedicated to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there. (v.27 – 28)

A vow is a specific kind of oath in which the person making the vow solemnly swears to pay something to God in return for God’s favor or blessing in a certain matter (Bible.org). We often make promises to God that we will do a specific act, if He will grant us our heart’s deepest desire. The only problem with the vows that we make to Him is we don’t do the best job at keeping them once He’s answered our prayer. Today, I would like for us to continue to look at Hannah, a servant who made a vow to God, and kept it – a woman of her word. She promised God that if He would give her a son, she would devote him to God. This child was Samuel (meaning “Name of God” or “God has heard” in Hebrew), who turned out to be a great prophet used by God in many awesome ways. How blessed are we when we keep our vows to God?

Have you made a promise to God? And have you fulfilled that promise or did you forget you even made one? The Bible explicitly tells us to ensure we do not delay to give to God what we said we would (Deuteronomy 23:21-23; Ecclesiastes 5:4-6), for it is better to not make a vow, than to do so and not stick to it (the latter is a sin). We must be careful that the promises we make we not only can keep them, but that we actually do. May we recognize that our words hold more weight than we give them, then we’ll be more careful to watch what we say.

Let’s approach God in reverence. If you made a vow to God, please do not delay in repaying Him (Matthew 5:33). Let’s hold ourselves accountable for the words we speak – they are all noted by God – may they prove to not be a snare to us (Proverbs 6:2; Matthew 12:36 – 37).

Dear Father, help me to repay every single vow I’ve made to You. I always want to be a person of my word. May I speak according to the Holy Spirit within me and not according to my flesh because on the Day of Judgment, I will have to give an account. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen!