[Samuel was afraid to tell Eli the vision,] but Eli called on him and said, “Samuel, my son.” Samuel answered, “Here I am.”

How should you prepare yourself to hear God’s Word in your heart? Maybe you believe the actual hearing of God’s Word is something left to the Old Testament times of prophets, so today one who hears it is as likely to be a religious crackpot as a true child of God. But God does want you to listen and to hear, and 1 Samuel 3:16 is about how to be humbly receptive so you have “ears to hear.”

This short but profound snippet of conversation occurred when Eli the prophet and Samuel his student met in the morning after a long night in which God spoke repeatedly to the young acolyte. Three times Samuel heard Him, three times he thought it was Eli calling, and three times he said to Eli, “Here I am,” only to hear Eli say, “I did not call.”

This phrase, here I am, is often seen in scripture, carrying the meaning, “Here I am, Lord, with my heart open to you, ready to do your will.” It speaks of a wonderfully spiritual state, with self and worldly concerns put away and “Holy Spirit” receptors turned wide open, ready to receive, with all static and chatter filtered out.

For Samuel, it had taken his entire lifetime – a relatively short time, as he was probably 13 or 14 years old when this happened – to prepare himself to say, “Here I am.” Centuries earlier, a much older man, Abraham, had said “Here I am” when God had called on him to slay his son Isaac as a sacrifice (Gen 22:1). “Here I am” is also what Abraham said when God spoke to him again (Gen. 22:11), telling him not to lay a hand on Isaac because he had passed his test of faith.

Samuel’s mother Hannah had her own test of faith. She prayed for years to have a child, never losing faith that God could end her barrenness. Finally, she said this prayer during a pilgrimage to Shiloh, where Eli was the priest:

“Lord Almighty, if you 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.” (1:11)

We all make promises to God, but does he accept our barter system? Clearly, it would have served his purpose to have someone other than Eli’s two wayward sons carry on his ministry, but in this story and many others, we see that God is looking for the faith behind the promise, not the promise itself.

After many barren years and many, many prayers that had gone unanswered, Hannah still had faith her prayers could be answered; she knew it. When the time became God’s time, he answered her with the newborn Samuel. Will we keep our faith if what we are praying for never comes into God’s time? It is his plans we should be praying for, with a sacrificial heart, knowing that our plans are second to his.

Before Samuel could be ready that night to say “Here I am” when God called, there had to be Hannah’s years of praying, her promise to God to give hm her son if her prayers were answered, her answered prayer and her kept promise. God honored Hannah’s prayer with Samuel, and as soon as he was weaned, she honored her promise to God, and dedicated him to the Lord during her next pilgrimage to Shiloh, leaving him with Eli to be trained to be a priest.

How hard that must have been for Hannah – to yearn all those years for a son, only to give him up! But she didn’t say, “Sorry God, I changed my mind. I’m sure you understand.” No! She had faith that God would answer her prayer, and faith that she would keep her promise to him. Samuel became God’s baby, then God’s boy, and finally, when he said, “Here I am,” God’s man.  God, in his time, had solved the problems posed by Eli’s sons, who were not fit to carry on the ministry at Shiloh.

When God spoke to Samuel and Samuel was ready to hear, the student surpassed the teacher, becoming the prophet who gave his name to two books of the Bible. It was done through the power of those three words, “Here I am.” They are the power of humility before God’s will and faith in His plan. They can elevate a boy to a prophet, and they can lift our relationship with God to a higher level.

Thought: Have an eagerness to accept God’s will, for He is a kind and loving father who knows better than we do what is best for us.

Prayer: Oh, Lord Almighty, here I am with you before me. My will is open to do your will. In the name of my Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.