What God Actually Wants From You
Welcome to The Daily Redemption for Tuesday, March 17, 2026 — where we discover that God doesn’t need your offerings—He wants your surrender, the thing you love most, given back to Him with a willing heart.
Opening Worshipful Lyrics from Zeb of Virginia Beach Church
from his song “What Have You Done For Him?”
That life He lived he lived for you That death He died he died for you
The words He spoke He spoke for you What have you done for Him?
The life you live He lives in you The truth you seek He left in you
The love of sin has fled from you What have you done for Him?
What have you done for him? X4
Oh what doeth He ask for Not a thing on Earth he craves
What price does he demand of you? Just accept His grace for all your days
Oh what does he require of us To our Father He says to pray
And know that Jesus blesseth us With The life, the love, the truth, the way
God loves us most when we sing His praise So sing His praise, sing His praise
God loves us most when we sing His praise So sing His praise, sing His praise
Featured Scripture And Commentary
1 Samuel 1:27–28 “I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him. So now I give him back to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is given to the Lord.”
We live in the world where most would not give Jesus or Our Father – the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob the time of day if They asked for it. And yet there are those who have dedicated their lives to prayer and worship and some at great sacrifice. But what does the Lord want from us and what can we humbly tender to him which will be accepted – not in exchange for grace, not to preserve our eternal gluteus maximus (esp if we are American) but because we love Him, want to grace Him and want to know Him. And some want Him to know their heart while most do what they can to hide their hearts, even giving as a cloaking device.
Does giving to church actually count as giving to God? Well depends on the church 🙂 Are they centered in His word and serving the congregation and neighborhood as a beacon of light (possibly also food and clothing) as Beach Church of Virginia Beach does? Then absolutely yes. As the pastor says in Communion weekly, he is going to serve the Eucharist to those who will serve the rest of the congregation the same. Is it a worldly thing that God wants? I mean…. what is it that we have that we can give Him that didn’t come from Him in the first place? Not a blessed thing. Does he want our babies, a 3 yr old bull and a leather bag full of wine from us in 2026? Probably not. Where would He keep the bull? Fellowship hall? Ok, let’s stop skimming the heavy cream off the top and get down to it. He needs and wants nary a thing from us. He is God. He created all. But He loves us. Yes that means YOU! Amazing, right? Amazing grace indeed! So what does he want back? In my case it was not my songwriting that he wanted me to sacrifice but my identification with it since that actually moved me away from Him which brings us to the answer…. THAT WHICH WE CAN GIVE WHICH WILL BRING US CLOSEST TO HIM. Meditate on that. I’m done talking this morning. May that be the first gift I give Him this morning and may it find his favor and be welcomed by making “Thy Kingdom Come” more of a reality in my life. He is doing that for me. I pray He will do that for you.
1 Samuel 1:10–11 In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord. And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if You will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him back to You for all the days of his life.”
Psalm 51:17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.
Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Psalm 50:10–12 For every animal of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are Mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and all that is in it.
Hannah didn’t give God a bull and wine because He needed them. She gave Him her son—her answered prayer, her joy, her future—because she needed to surrender. That’s the pattern: God gives. We receive. Then He asks for it back—not because He’s greedy, but because He’s making us free. What have you given Him? A tithe? That’s good. But has He asked for the thing that defines you—your ambition, your relationship, your dream—and you said yes? He doesn’t want your leftovers. He wants your Samuel. And He’ll accept it not because it’s valuable to Him, but because your surrender proves you trust Him more than you cling to the gift. That’s worship. Not transaction. Transformation.
Lord, show me what I’m holding too tightly. The gift I’ve confused for the Giver. Give me courage to say, “This is Yours—not because You need it, but because I need to trust You with it.” Break my heart for what breaks Yours. And make my surrender an act of worship, not duty. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
DR, HannahsSurrender, 1Samuel1, GiveHimYourSamuel, DailyRedemption, BrokenSpirit, SurrenderNotSacrifice
#DailyRedemption #HannahsSurrender #1Samuel1 #GiveHimYourSamuel #BrokenSpirit #SurrenderNotSacrifice #BibleDevotional #WillingHeart
What does God truly want from you? In this Daily Redemption devotional, explore Hannah’s radical surrender of her son Samuel—not because God needed another servant, but because her heart needed to release its idol. Rooted in 1 Samuel 1 and Psalm 51:17, this reflection challenges believers to ask: What have I kept for myself that God has asked me to give back? Visit theholygospel.net for more devotionals, original worship music by Zeb of Virginia Beach, and daily truth that anchors the soul. If this stirred you to examine your own surrender, please like, subscribe, and share with someone who needs to hear: “He doesn’t want your stuff—He wants your heart.” Have a blessed day in the Lord.
