The Story of Samuel

I love the story of Samuel hearing God for the first time. “Here am I, speak, Lord” is a prayer I aspire to live by! Yet, when reading the story recently, I was drawn to a different line in the narrative.

Eli instructed Samuel that the voice he heard was in fact God. But before he told him to say “speak, Lord,” he told him to go lie down. (1 Samuel 3:18)

While I love the idea of going back to bed and getting a nap in, I feel like it’s more than just Eli shooing Samuel away. Verse 9 ends with “So Samuel went and lay down in his place.”

Eli was instructing Samuel to go back to the last place where he heard God. Where was he when he last felt His presence? It wasn’t on a platform with Eli. It wasn’t at someone else’s broken-in altar. It wasn’t surrounded by glory or illuminated by lights or witnessed by thousands. It was “his place.”

If you’re looking for a word today, may I encourage you to find your place? Where is it that God speaks to you? In your prayer closet, tears streaming down? Where did you last feel His presence? Reading the Word or lifting your voice in worship?

If you want to hear from Him today, go find your place, and call out, “here am I, speak, Lord!”