Daily Devotion for January 11, 2018
Prayers
Scripture
Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.
Teach me to pray to my Father above;
Teach me to know of the things that are right;
Teach me, teach me to walk in the light.
Come, little child, and together we'll learn
Of his commandments, that we may return
Home to his presence, to live in his sight —
Always, always to walk in the light.
Father in Heaven, we thank thee this day
For loving guidance to show us the way.
Grateful, we praise thee with songs of delight!
Gladly, gladly we'll walk in the light.
Music and Lyrics by Clara W. McMaster
For Salvation
O Lord God of Israel, who has come to all the nations through your Son, Christ Jesus, there is no god like you in heaven or earth, for you are loving and kind and you keep your promises to your people if they only have faith and seek to follow your commandments. You have fulfilled your promise to our fathers Abraham and David, who were your servants, through the mightiest and humblest of all men ever to live: the Word made flesh.
And now, O Lord our God, fulfill your promise to all who confess the name of Jesus Christ, I pray, that we may live in faith of Him, loving you and following your ways as He did, that we might be sanctified as your children and heirs.
That the World May Find Christ
Almighty God, whose compassions fail not, and whose loving-kindness reacheth unto the world’s end; We give thee humble thanks for opening heathen lands to the light of thy truth; for making paths in the deep waters and highways in the desert; and for planting thy Church in all the earth. Grant, we beseech thee, unto us thy servants, that with lively faith we may labour abundantly to make known to all men thy blessed gift of eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Meditation
[How can I “labour abundantly” to make known to all men the blessed gift of Christ?]
Parting Prayer
Oh Lord as I face creation
Let me see with eyes made clear
By Your promise of salvation,
Never to return to fear.
Think of the day ahead in terms of God with you, and visualize health, strength, guidance, purity, calm confidence, and victory as the gifts of His presence.
Psalm 108:5-6, 12 (NKJV)
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens,
And Your glory above all the earth;
That Your beloved may be delivered,
Save with Your right hand, and hear me. . . .
Give us help from trouble,
For the help of man is useless.
1 Samuel 1:21-28 (ESV)
Hannah Dedicates Samuel
When the man Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfill his vow, 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.”
“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.
After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, a bushel of flour, and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. When they had sacrificed the bull, they brought the boy to Eli, and she said to him, “As surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.
Notes on the Scripture
emember from Tuesday that the barren Hannah, teased and goaded by her husband Elkanah’s other wife, had prayed fervently for a child, promising that if the Lord would grant her a son, she would “give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor [would] ever be used on his head.” She makes good on her promise, and she takes him before the rather mysterious priest Eli, who had blessed her prayers.
Her husband must have been a man of some righteousness, to go along with the plan, and also a reasonably prosperous man, as he had two wives and was able to spare a bull and a fair measure of flour and wine for Samuel’s dedication.
The birth and dedication appear to be Hannah’s idea. This sets her apart from other mothers of notable Biblical figures — Mary, Elizabeth, and Samson’s mother come to mind — where an angel visited the mother at or before conception, with information and instructions about the child. Also, she was not asked to give her child over to a terrible death. Samuel will die of natural causes, unlike Jesus, John the Baptist, or Samson.
French “Book of Hours.”
