"Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say, "May the LORD give you children by this woman for the petition she asked of the LORD." So then they would return to their home. Indeed the LORD visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the young man Samuel grew in the presence of the LORD" (1Sam. 2:20-21).
Elkanah went up to the house of the Lord on a yearly bases. During these visits, Hannah his wife, who was unable to have children, would poured out her soul to the Lord to enable her to conceive. On one occasion as she prayed, she vowed a vow that if the Lord would grant her request she would give the child unto him. God answered her prayer and Hannah made good on her promise. When the child that she named Samuel was weaned she brought him to the temple where he served the Lord under Eli the priest. Samuel was one of the greatest judges and prophets Israel ever had.
Because of the unselfish nature of Hannah's prayer God not only answered her intial request for a child, but enabled her to have even more children. James wrote, "You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions" (James 4:2-3). What is the underlying and overall motive of your prayer life? Jesus said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33). Seek first to advanced God's kingdom not your own.
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