Quotes About Devotion

So after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the temple of the LORD.

In her bitter distress, Hannah prayed to the LORD and wept with many tears.

As Hannah kept on praying before the LORD, Eli watched her mouth.

Hannah was praying in her heart, and though her lips were moving, her voice could not be heard. So Eli thought she was drunk

“No, my lord,” Hannah replied. “I am a woman oppressed in spirit. I have not had any wine or strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the LORD.

Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; for all this time I have been praying out of the depth of my anguish and grief.”

The next morning Elkanah and Hannah got up early to bow in worship before the LORD, and then returned home to Ramah. And Elkanah had relations with his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her.

Then Elkanah and all his house went up to make the annual sacrifice to the LORD and to fulfill his vow,

but Hannah did not go. “After the boy is weaned,” she said to her husband, “I will take him to appear before the LORD and to stay there permanently.”

“Please, my lord,” said Hannah, “as surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD.

I now dedicate the boy to the LORD. For as long as he lives, he is dedicated to the LORD.” So they worshiped the LORD there.

Now Samuel was ministering before the LORD—a boy wearing a linen ephod.

Each year his mother would make him a little robe and bring it to him when she went with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.

And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with man.

Then Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and Ashtoreths among you, prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only. And He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.”

So the Israelites put away the Baals and Ashtoreths and served only the LORD.

So Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.

“Do not be afraid,” Samuel replied. “Even though you have committed all this evil, do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart.

Above all, fear the LORD and serve Him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things He has done for you.

So he said, “Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings.” And he offered up the burnt offering.

Now go and attack the Amalekites and devote to destruction all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, but put to death men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.í”

Saul answered, “The troops brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the LORD your God, but the rest we devoted to destruction.”

The troops took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of the things devoted to destruction, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal.”

But Samuel declared: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to His voice? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and attentiveness is better than the fat of rams.