1 Samuel 1:27
"Devout souls delight to look upon those mercies which they have obtained in answer to supplication, for they can see God's especial love in them.
When we can name our blessings Samuel, that is, asked of God, they
will be as dear to us as her child was to Hannah.
Hannah's one heaven-given child was dearer far, because he was the fruit of earnest pleadings.
Q: Did we pray for the conversion of our children?
How doubly sweet, when they are saved, to see in them our own petitions fulfilled!
Better to rejoice over them as the fruit of our pleadings than as the fruit of our bodies.
It is always best to get blessings into our house in the legitimate way, by the door of prayer; then they are blessings indeed, and not temptations.
Even when prayer speeds not, the blessings grow all the richer for the delay; The gift came from heaven, let it go to heaven. Prayer brought it, gratitude sang over it, let devotion consecrate it.
Q: Reader, is prayer your element or your weariness?
Q: Which?"
Charles Spurgeon
