Dear God,
I speak a better word over my life and the lives of others. For everyone who is hurting and heartbroken: God sees you, God hears you, and God knows you. Whatever situation you’re going through, God is using for good. Maybe you didn’t picture yourself here or maybe you did and it’s nothing like you’d dream it would be. I speak over your life, the dashed hopes, the crumbled dreams, that God would not only let there be light but let there be life. In the ashes, new life is born. Even the darkness will not be dark, in the midst of the glory of our God.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Legacy
Legacy! That’s something God has been bringing into my mind: the legacy we leave behind in this world before we take our final breath. Every moment counts in the kingdom of God. No one goes unnoticed: good or bad. Faith is not soiled if the substance we hope in never fails. I think about the legacy I want to leave behind not only for me but my own family in the future. Recently I’ve been reading through 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, and it starts with the aptly named Samuel: born of faith.
Hannah
Everyone remembers Hannah for her prayers for a baby. All her life, she had been childless while her husband’s other wife would “provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the Lord has closed her womb” (1 Samuel 6). I considered what that meant. God closed her womb? Wasn’t that evil? Especially to a woman like Hannah who so desperately wanted one. She would definitely be a good mother. She knew she would love her baby and raise him well. God, in all His sovereignty, allowed Hannah to be barren so that when she came to Him, He could be glorified in answering her, and He could fulfill His plan for a prophet.
I reflected and researched because this woman had a dream in her heart that God had not only given her but wanted for her. So, why did it happen like this? Like Hannah, we all have this dream in our hearts for something still waiting to be fulfilled. They’re often good things. We dream of finishing school. Getting the job. Getting the dream guy/girl. Having a solid church group. Then we fail our final. We never hear back from the interview. The dream guy/girl is only just a dream. The church group is going through drama.
Hannah’s legacy is her faith. She goes to the only person who can fulfill her desires, and it’s Jesus. She goes to God, empty-handed and tear-filled. She knows that He hears her prayers. She doesn’t hide what she deeply wants. She doesn’t pretend like it doesn’t bother her. She doesn’t complain or ask for revenge on her attackers. She comes simply weeping her heart out before God. She asks for change to come. She is an example to us of what we are to do with our desires: bring them before God at the altar.
Does that mean, like Hannah, God will fulfill your dream?
If it’s God’s Will, it will be a yes, but it’s not a yes with all your strings attached. It’s not a yes that’s based on your preferences. That’s how God refines His yes in your life. So that when the dream comes you’re not entitled. So that you know it has always belonged to God to give and also take away. So that the blessing doesn’t become an idol.
If it’s not God’s Will, it will be a no. It will be a loving “no”. A “no” that is given for a “better yes”. God isn’t in the business of giving less than His own standards, so we have to learn to yield and receive the “no” just as gracefully as we receive the “yes”. That doesn’t mean you have to be happy. That doesn’t mean you say thank you through grit teeth. It means that we decide that God is God, that God is good, God is Your good God, and that the “no” includes all of that.
If it’s uncertain, then it’s a wait. My least favorite. I’d rather get the “no” because there’s a different level of faith that comes with wait. The answer comes with patience, endurance, and consistency. The answer may not be clear enough for you to make a choice, but that’s where you pray, you ask, you trust, and you believe that God can lead you where He wants you to go if it’s the wrong road.
For me, it’s a season of waiting. Sometimes we wait for the wrong thing, we ask God for answers when God’s answer is His presence. We ask God “how will it happen” and God tells us who He is. God doesn’t make you wait to induce suffering, God makes you wait for deeper faith, trust, hope, and love to arise. In happy seasons, your hope is a bare thread. It’s a drop in the bucket. Why hope when you’re happy with what you have? God is a God of peace, but there’s a difference because peace and contentment from being dulled by the world. You’re not hungry not because God is filling you and nourishing you, but you’re constantly consuming junk: social media, validation from others, material items, accomplishments, degrees, and you’re happy enough. You’re happy as long as you have everything you want. You’re happy if things go according to your plans. Your happiness is subjected to the whims of others, the ways of this world, and it’s here today gone the next.
In difficult storms, all we can cling to is hope like a life raft. We lose our footing in the world we created. The world we thought we knew and understood feels like a foreign and desolate place. The expiration date for whatever you put your hope in hits. You are left feeling like up is right and down is also right -- nothing makes sense and it never will again -- and you are confused. Nothing you relished in brings any joy or peace. Nights are for weeping and morning for more mourning. You wonder if God is even real, and even worse: if He is real, is He indifferent to you?
It’s hard for me to believe that Hannah prayed just the one time and received Samuel. How many years did she ask? How many insults did she have to take? How much deep sadness needed to be filled with even deeper hope for her to continue on? Yet, how much did she remember all the grief when she felt his first kick? Wasn’t her mind filled with amazement and wonder about the baby she would have? Didn’t the pain and suffering melt away the moment she saw his face?
That is how it is with God. The present pain and suffering will be a faded memory compared to the greater glory ahead. The plans God has to prosper you, to give you hope and a future, will make your present afflictions pale in comparison to the joy to come.
In Hannah’s story, we know we have a God who answers prayers for His plans. God’s answers to us are never just about us or what we want. We have to train ourselves to look at the bigger picture. Who will this answered prayer affect? Why do we really want what we want? Are we asking the right questions? Are we praying with God’s glory in mind?
Eli - Priests aren’t Perfect
Before I get into Eli’s legacy, I have to explain more about Hannah. Hannah, after dark, had gone to the temple to pray. She wept and spoke to God, not making a sound, but moving her mouth. Eli is a priest who sees her, and he thinks she’s drunk. She explains she’s praying, and he goes on to bless her with God’s peace and assurance to her answered prayers. Part of Hannah’s prayer was that if she did have a child, she would dedicate him to be a priest for God! We might not see the significance of the greater story at play when God answers her prayers with His own plans because He doesn't like Eli’s sons.
The thing about Eli, and most parents, is that he doesn’t discipline his children properly. Good parents discipline their children, that’s why God disciplines us. We’re given boundaries which if broken have consequences. We are given discipline by God in a few ways, but the main way is God guiding us to do what is right. No what feels right. What is right by God’s standards. God also doles our punishment for our active and passive disobedience. So many times we think that to sin we must have evil intentions. Sin is forgetting God and choosing yourself, isn’t that so natural?
Discipline from God is not meant to crush us, but it’s supposed to press us towards good and away from evil. If God didn’t discipline you or me, we would keep sinning and go further away from the good life God has in store for us. If God doesn’t guide us we would be left to our own thoughts, experiences, and ideas to make choices. God has so much more for you. God loves you.
So, Eli fails to discipline his children who he made priests without much qualification. Being a priest or having any power and authority without discipline and proper training is a recipe for disaster. So, as Eli’s sons have sex with women at the entrance of the temple, take people’s offerings and sacrifices to God, and basically do evil — Eli basically tells them to stop — and nothing else. He doesn’t take away their positions. His love for his children is not tempered with discipline and in letting them do as they please, he co-signs their deaths.
God is obviously mad! He’s given Eli and his sons chances to make things right, but they refuse whether by passivity or active rebellion. So, God takes away His promise to establish Eli’s lineage of priests with God’s favor and blessing. Wait — God can take away His promise? What’s up with that?
So, we have unconditional promises of God: the promise of eternal life to those who believe in Jesus. Then we have conditional promises of God: God promises to establish David’s sons as kings if they walk in righteousness and turn away from evil. So, God does a two for one special with Hannah, He gives her a baby and gets Himself a new prophet to take over since Eli’s sons would not be established.
Eli is an example of how we affect our families. Our choice to follow God cannot be contained to ourselves. We have to teach our children to know and love Jesus. We do that by following God first. How can we teach what we don’t live out? Whether they do or not is eventually up to them, but it shouldn’t be because we failed to discipline and teach them. Love without truth is corrosive. It’s not God’s best for us. Truth without love is cold and unfeeling. There’s no room for mistakes.
In Eli’s story, we learn the importance of maintaining a legacy of faith. It’s not enough to just raise some kids. You might one day find yourself in the position of parenthood, will you tell them that it’s important to follow your plans or God’s plans? Will you train them to obey for the sake of obedience or in response to love? Will you only be happy if they attain worldly success or eternal abundance?
Most of the time your children will not do what you want, but there’s something about teaching them to love God. My parents have been exemplary in teaching me how God’s love, plans, and purposes for my life should define me. They have given me a strong foundation, and God took care of the rest. When I really struggled through my life, I knew I could turn to God. I learned to follow and obey God, sometimes even against my parents’ wishes, and that’s the goal! That’s a success story. That we would obey God over all else because that’s what our parents have taught us.
My Legacy
I think about my future children, and I’ve been thinking about them more so lately. Of course I have big dreams for them. I want them to be kind, compassionate, deeply driven, highly motivated, funny, wise, strong, and God-fearing children. Yet, what if they’re difficult? Biters? Rebellious? Don’t follow a word I say? Then I lead by example, trusting God that I’m doing my part, and He’s doing His. Trusting God to establish His legacy in my life and the lives of my future children.
God has loved and blessed my family for so long. I think about my great grandparents, and how their faith has been passed down to me. People who I’ve never met have changed my entire life by their choices. It’s crazy to think that I’m doing that: I’m changing the lives of generations after me by the choices I make today! By the faith and hope and love within me, the blessing that I receive will be their inheritance. Doesn't that make life extra meaningful? Every choice is even more purposeful!
You Decide!
I hope that you would be a continuation in God’s legacy of love. We can end generational strongholds of anxiety, insecurity, and fear. We can be the beginning of God’s plans to secure our families as bold, strong, and influential leaders of the gospel. We can lead by example in how we trust God, pray, worship, and live our lives. We can also live in disobedience and end promises too. We don’t always think about that part. What sins are we continuing in our family? Pride? Hatred? Unforgiveness? Bitterness? Poor communication skills? Stubbornness?
God has made us leaders in our lives. We get to set the tone of how things go for ourselves and others. We can go from glory to glory and faith to faith (2 Corinthians 3:18) or we can go from death to death and fear to fear too. God doesn’t want that for you, God wants to establish a new way of thinking, a new way of life, and make a stream in a desert when it comes to your family (Isaiah 43:19). It’s so easy to live in fear, thinking that if we stay there that we can get what we want: a comfortable life, so-and-so’s approval, or worldly success. The truth is you can get all of those things without God and that will be all you have.
We have to really believe life doesn’t end after death. If you get a chance to read Revelations or go through different parts of the Bible, you’ll know that life continues for believers. There’s treasures in heaven that you are storing up. It’s better than Bitcoin! That’s why every decision counts. That’s why every thought, moment, prayer, act of faith, and tear is saved and treasured by God. It’s not wasted. What you do for God will never be in vain. You will not be put to shame.
Isaiah 54:4
“Fear not, for you will not be put to shame;
And do not feel humiliated, for you will not be disgraced;
But you will forget the shame of your youth,
And the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
Joel 2:26
“You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied
And praise the name of the Lord your God,
Who has dealt wondrously with you;
Then My people will never be put to shame.
Isaiah 45:17
Israel has been saved by the Lord
With an everlasting salvation;
You will not be put to shame or humiliated
To all eternity.
Dear God, I lift up in prayer everyone reading today! I pray that they would seek out eternal purpose and see how important each and every choice they make is. I pray you would help us to see beyond ourselves and have heavenly thoughts. I pray that we would leave behind legacy that comes from the riches of Christ, and that you would train us to train the future. Lord, give us the strength to follow You and Your will first above all else. Help us to not see through fear but see in faith.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
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