Book of Common Prayer

Hallelujah, God helps weak people^[a]

A song to sing as we climb.

David wrote this song.

²⁰ Hannah became pregnant. Later, she gave birth to a son. She gave him the name ‘Samuel’. She said, ‘His name is Samuel because I asked the Lord for him.’^[a]

Hannah gives Samuel to serve God

²¹ Next year, Elkanah went to Shiloh to offer sacrifices to the Lord, as he had promised to do. His family went with him. ²² But Hannah did not go as well. She said to her husband, ‘I will not go until the boy is older. When he can eat proper food, I will take him to Shiloh to give him to the Lord. Then he will live there for all his life.’

²³ Elkanah said to Hannah, ‘You must do what seems right to you. Stay here at home until the boy begins to eat proper food. May the Lord help you, as he has promised.’

So Hannah stayed at home with her son while he continued to drink milk from her breasts.

²⁴ When Samuel started to eat proper food, Hannah took him to Shiloh. She took him to the Lord's house there when he was still a young boy. She took with her a bull that was three years old. She also took a big bag of flour and a leather bag full of wine. ²⁵ They killed the bull for the sacrifice. Then Hannah took Samuel to Eli. ²⁶ Hannah said to Eli, ‘Please believe me sir. I am the woman who stood here before. You saw me when I was praying to the Lord. ²⁷ I prayed that the Lord would give me a son and he answered my prayer. ²⁸ Now I will give this child to serve the Lord. He will be the Lord's servant for his whole life.’

Then Elkanah's family worshipped the Lord there.

¹⁴ All those people who live with God's Spirit as their guide are God's children. ¹⁵ The Spirit that you have received from God does not make you serve him like slaves. That would make you afraid again. No. The Spirit that God has given to you causes you to become God's children. Now he takes care of you. God's Spirit makes us call God: ‘Abba, our Father.’ ¹⁶ God's Spirit himself causes us to know that we are God's children. God's Spirit and our own spirits agree that this is true. ¹⁷ Because we are God's children, we also know that we will receive good things from him. Those are the things that he has promised to give to his children. Together with Christ, we will receive the things that God has kept for him. That is true if we agree to have troubles like Christ did. Then we will also enjoy life in heaven like Christ does.

God has prepared great things for his people

¹⁸ During this time now, we have troubles and pain. But I am sure that these troubles are not really very great. One day God will show us all the great things he has prepared for us. That will make the troubles that we have now seem very small. ¹⁹ The whole universe that God has made now waits for something great to happen. Everything is waiting with hope to find out who God's children really are.

²⁰ God has caused everything in the universe to lose its purpose. It did not choose to be like that. It was God who decided that it should be like that. Then it could hope for something better in a future time. ²¹ At that time, the universe will not continue to become worse and worse, as it does now. It will become free from that power. It will be free to enjoy great things from God, as God's children are also free.