Return to Sender

There are prayers we pray when we’re out of options. The kind where we stop trying to sound composed and just ask:

“God, if You do this…”

“If You bring me out of this…”

“If You give me this…”

And in those moments, we mean it. We make promises we fully intend to keep. But what happens after the answer comes?

Mondays are my publishing day. When I woke up today, I had nothing in mind. No topic, no clear direction. And if I'm honest, sometimes that turns into searching. Not reading… searching.

But God is always speaking.

So I went back to a place in the Word where God had already spoken to me. I picked up where I had left off in First Samuel, chapter 1, and couldn’t move past verses 27 and 28.

Those two verses stopped me, but they don’t make sense without the story that came before them.

Hannah was desperate for a child. She was being provoked and tormented by Peninnah, who had children while she did not. Scripture says she wept bitterly. She stopped eating. She poured herself out before the Lord and made a vow: if God gave her a son, she would give him back to Him.

Then she wiped her tears, ate, and the scripture says her face was no longer sad. She believed before she had anything in her hands.

In time, Samuel was born. She nursed him, watched him grow, and waited until he was weaned. She told her husband she would not return to the house of the Lord until she could present him there and leave him before the Lord. {1 Samuel 1:22, CSB}

And when the time came, she followed through on the vow she made. “I prayed for this boy, and since the Lord gave me what I asked him for, I now give the boy to the Lord. For as long as he lives, he is given to the Lord.” {1 Samuel 1:27–28, CSB}

She brought him to the house of the Lord, placed him in the care of Eli, and went home.

And if we’re honest, this is where it would be hard for us.

We have no problem asking. And at times, we have no problem believing. Where we struggle is with what comes after.

Because once God gives us what we prayed for, something shifts. When something we wanted becomes ours to experience we start to treat it like it belongs to us. As if it is ours to manage, protect, and keep.

Scripture pulls us back to what is true: “The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord.” {Psalm 24:1, CSB}

What God places in our hands never stops belonging to Him. That was the ground Hannah stood on when she walked into the house of the Lord and kept her word. She dedicated Samuel to God. Not sacrificed. Dedicated.

But when we hear dedication, we tend to hear sacrifice. And sacrifice, the way we think about it, means loss. Something taken. Which is exactly why the thought of giving anything back to God makes us brace ourselves. We assume that our surrender of the thing, means the thing is or will be gone. That it is over. That we are walking away empty handed.

But that is not what dedication is.

Dedication is placing something into God’s hands while it is still very much present and alive, and trusting Him with whatever it becomes. It does not disappear. It gets placed under the care of the One who gave it in the first place.

After Hannah dedicated Samuel to God he didn’t vanish. He grew up in the house of the Lord. He learned to hear the voice of God. Scripture says, “In those days the word of the Lord was rare and prophetic visions were not widespread.” {1 Samuel 3:1, CSB}

And yet, God spoke to Samuel.

He went on to anoint Israel’s first king. And later, he anointed David, the one through whose line Jesus would come.

None of that happens if Hannah holds on.

Sit with that for a moment.

Because that’s not the picture most of us have.

When we think about giving something to God, we think about Abraham and Isaac. A mountain. An altar. And a son he waited 25 years to receive.

So when God begins to press on something we love, something we prayed and, waited a long time for, that’s the image that comes to mind. And we panic. Because somewhere in our thinking, giving something to God has become synonymous with losing it. Like the moment we release it, it’s gone.

But that’s not what we see in Hannah’s story.

And it’s not what we see in Jesus.

Jesus knew from the beginning why He came. He knew His mission. He knew what it would require. And before He was handed over, He was in the garden, in agony, asking the Father if there was any other way.

He didn’t have to go through with it. But He chose to. He said, “Not my will, but yours.” {Luke 22:42, CSB}

And He meant it. In John 10:18, He said, “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down on my own.” His life was not taken from Him. He gave it. Intentionally and out of love. And when He said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,” {Luke 23:46, CSB} He released His life back to the One it came from.

Just like Hannah. She carried Samuel, loved him, watched him grow, and she placed him back into the hands of the God who gave him. And through that act, God’s purpose for Samuel’s life was fully realized.

The same is true of Jesus. His willingness to give His life back to the Father is what made reconciliation between God and man possible. It is what opened the door for every one of us.

That should change how we think about giving back to God. It’s not subtraction. It’s surrender. And in His hands, surrender always leads somewhere. And He has proven that.

Since everything we have has come from the hand of God, the posture of our hearts should never be one-sided. We have to be just as ready and willing to give back to the Lord as we are to receive from Him. Our hands were designed for both. Scripture even reminds us that it is more blessed to give than to receive. {Acts 20:35, CSB} Giving back to God is not the lesser end of the exchange. It is the greater one.

Jesus gave His life. Hannah gave Samuel back.

Whatever you have right now, the job that finally came, the spouse you finally found, or the money you finally saved, what are you willing to do with it?

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Reflect

What has God given you that you’ve started to hold onto more tightly than you realize?

Write

Be honest about what you’re afraid might happen if you fully give it back to God.

Pray

God, You are the giver of every good thing in my life. Forgive me for the ways I’ve started to hold tightly to what You placed in my hands. Teach me how to trust You with what I’ve been trying to manage on my own. Help me release it back to You, not out of fear, but out of faith. Show me what it looks like to keep stewarding it while remembering that it still belongs to You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Return

Have the conversation you've been avoiding with God about the thing you identified. Not around it. About it. Directly.