His story is told in 1 Samuel 1—28. He is also mentioned in Psalm 99:6; Jeremiah 15:1; Acts 3:24; 13:20; Hebrews 11:32.
Our lives will be different if they are dedicated to God.
1 Sam 1:11 And she made this vow: “O Lord Almighty, if you will look down upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you. He will be yours for his entire lifetime, and as a sign that he has been dedicated to the Lord, his hair will never be cut.”
Samuel came as a result of God’s answer to Hannah’s fervent prayer for a child. (In fact, the name Samuel comes from the Hebrew expression “heard of God.”) God shaped Samuel from the start. Likewise, our lives will be different and powerfully used by God if we dedicate it to Him.
What aspects of your life can you dedicate to God? How about your job? When you dedicate you job to Him, it means that the job you hold is His. Since the job belongs to God, He has the right to take it away. He can call you to another job or to full time ministry. If the job belongs to God, you work in that job as if you are working towards God, wholeheartedly. Since the job belongs to God, you cannot be doing anything morally wrong in your job. If you boss requires you to lie or cheat in your job, you either have to stand up and say no, or quit because you can’t dedicate the job to God if it causes you to do wrong.
Are you dedicating your children to the Lord? If you are, you will bring them up in the ways of the Lord because they are now His children. You will surrender their future plans to the Lord. If He so chooses to call them to full time ministry, you will agree.
Surrendering something to God does not mean that we will lose it. God wants to know our sincerity. In the case of Abraham, God asked him to give up his son. But He did not take Isaac away from Abraham. From the incident, Abraham’s faithfulness is proven and God blessed him richly.
He was available for God’s service
1 Sam 3:10And the Lord came and called as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel replied, “Yes, your servant is listening.”
God worked through Samuel because Samuel was willing to be one thing: God’s servant. Samuel moved ahead because he was listening to God’s directions.
Are you seeking for God’s directions in your life? Have you been asking God what area of ministry He wants you to be or what kind of job He wants you to hold Or do we pre-decide those things and ask God to bless our decision. The person God uses best is one who is willing to do whatever God requires of him.
He was faithful in small things
Samuel showed that those whom God finds faithful in small things will be trusted with greater things. He grew up assisting the high priest (Eli) in the Tabernacle until God directed him to other responsibilities.
1 Sam 3:1 Meanwhile, the boy Samuel was serving the Lord by assisting Eli. Now in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon.
We should not rush ourselves in God’s ministry. Many people of God went through a period of growing in the Lord doing seemingly mundane things. If we do those things wholehearted, God moulds our character during that time.
Are you hurrying to do something significant in the near future? Why not commit your ministry to God and ask him to plan it in His own time?