WHAT ARE OUR EXCUSES?

WHAT ARE OUR EXCUSES?

24 oct. 2021

Marius KOUNOU

“For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him: Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord.” 1 Samuel 1: 27-28

In Luke 17: 11-19, we read the story of 10 men with leprosy who were healed after they had obeyed Jesus' instructions. However, after they got healed, only one of them went back to thank Jesus. We generally can’t resist the urge of condemning the other 9 who did not bother to go back and show gratitude to their healer. But, are we any different from them? Sadly enough we always find excuses to support our ungrateful attitude.

Among stories of gratefulness in the Bible, the most impressive to me is the one of Hannah who had decided to offer her son for full-time service to the Lord after God had finally blessed her with a child. Impressive because she had many excuses to keep that Child. The first excuse is that she had prayed and looked for that child for many years and this should make it difficult for her to be separated from a child. The second excuse is that Samuel was her only son, which was a great excuse for her to keep him. Remember one of the key indications of the love of God to humanity is the fact that he sent his only son to die on the cross (John 3: 16). Third, Hannah was in such a competition with the second wife of her husband who never missed an opportunity to laugh at her because Hannah had no child. (1 Samuel 1:6).

You and I have taken many things for granted (job, child, promotion, marriage, business opportunities). We have missed opportunities to be grateful to God and we have found excuses for not keeping the promises we made to the Lord. In fact, many times we have acted like the 9 men who did not go back to Jesus instead of behaving like the only man who went back to him or like Hannah who chose the giver instead of the gift.

The story of Hannah is evidence that we should have no excuses to let the gift take the place of the giver (God) in our hearts.

© 2025 Root of Hope. All rights reserved

© 2025 Root of Hope. All rights reserved

© 2025 Root of Hope. All rights reserved