Have you given your children to Jesus?

We learned last week that we must passionately pray for leaders, because our Christian leaders should be asked of God and called by God. This was the case with Samuel.

Samuel’s parents also had their part to play in preparing Samuel for the leadership of God's people. What did they do? Before Samuel was born, Hannah swore an oath to the Lord:
(1Sam 1:11) And she made a vow, saying, "O LORD Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head."

Hannah wished to dedicate her son as a Nazirite. Nazirite vows were very strict: to abstain from the use of wine and strong drink, refrain from shaving the head and beard, and avoid contact with corpses (Num 6). Hannah was offering her son as a Nazirite, in a lifelong special dedication to the Lord’s service.

In obedience to her vow, Hannah presented a 3 or 4 year old Samuel to Eli the high priest, to live in the tabernacle. "I give him to the Lord," she said.
How many of us, like Hannah, dedicate our children or grand children to God’s, faithfully praying for them and giving them the appropriate example, by ensuring that they are faithful in Sunday School and Teens Church and not keeping them out of Sunday School for unacceptable, shallow reasons?

How many of us give our children to the Lord? How many of our youth are even willing to consider to follow Christ and consider to serve Jesus full time?

Many Christian parents and grand parents no longer hold Christian ministry as an ambition for their children. Instead, they bring them up to have a piece of the secure, materialistic, prestigious world. But, what more secure future could we want for our children than to give them to God! Only Jesus can guide and keep them.

Families used to point with pride to sons and daughters who became ministers or missionaries. Now, parents rather are proud of sons and daughters who make lots of money. Yet, no career is as exciting, as important and as life-changing as Christian service and ministry. For in Christian service and ministry we deal with matters of eternal significance that effect people for eternity.

If we passionately pray for Christian leaders as we should do, we must put our money where our mouth is and dedicate our sons and daughters to God through prayer, example and upbringing.

"I give him to the Lord," says Hannah. "For his whole life he will be given to the Lord." How I wish every parent would say this. And, how I wish everyone of our youth would demand this.