[Darris McNeely]  Anger, resentment, and bitterness. These are not good things to walk around life with. I know that all of us have experienced those emotions to one degree or the other in our lives. And sometimes for too long more than time than we should really but you know, life does bring disappointments, relationships will fail. People will disappoint us, situations will come up that can lead us to again, anger, disappointment, and hopefully not, but even bitterness. We've all been there. The key I've learned and the key that comes from Scripture is to give it to God.

There's a passage from the Old Testament of a woman who could have had all of these and probably touched on anger, bitterness, and certainly disappointment in her life, but she learned a key lesson that allowed her to move beyond that. The woman is Hannah, the mother of Samuel, her story is told in 1 Samuel 1. It's a familiar story. But Hannah was barren and she was mocked by the other women in the family. Is one of those situations at the time in the Old Testament that we don't have the time to explain right now. But she was without child, yet her husband loved her. And every year they would go up to the festivals and a place called Shiloh. And there they would go through their worship of God.

And one year when she was there, and the story that is told here, she was making a promise in a prayer before the altar to God. That, if she were given a son, a child, she would dedicate that son to God. That's the essence of the story there. The priest, Eli thought that she was hurt or mumbling and came up to her and she said, "No, I'm making a prayer to my God."

And what she did is what we should do. Hannah gave her situation, her disappointment, maybe even her bitterness at that point in life, to God. And she did it there in the presence of God and the place where his name was at that time, and she left it there. And you know what it says at the end of the passage after she had made her prayer, in verse 18, 1 Samuel 1. She said, "Let your servant find favor in your eyes," as she laid it all before God's throne. "And then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad." And her face was no longer sad.

Well, the story goes on, she had a child, she got pregnant. And that child was Samuel, who then she does dedicate to God's work, who goes on to become the great prophet of the Old Testament in that period, in the story of Israel. She gave it to God. That's what we have to do when disappointments from people, from situations, from experiences in our lives, could cause us to be angry, bitter, or resentful. Those are not good qualities, and we can't let them fester in our lives. Before God in prayer, we ultimately have got to give it up to God and then move on. And if we do, we can expect that our face will no longer bear the marks of anger, resentment, or disappointment, because it does bear upon our face, in our lives, and in our attitude.

So story from the life of Hannah, and it's a good one for us all to remember in dealing with some of the problems, issues, and disappointments of life that come our way. That's BT Daily. Join us next time.