In verse 24, he gives them a most beautiful exhortation which we can certainly apply to ourselves. Take every word. This could be a single devotion for us for a single evening: ‘Only fear the Lord.’ That comes first: respect him, reverence him. ‘And serve him.’ It’s not enough to worship the Lord. What are you called to be a believer for? To serve him. If only we could have the spirit of Hannah of old, who was pained because in her poor life she had no opportunity at all to do anything for the Lord. The only thing that poor woman could do was – and that seemed impossible – to bring forth a child for the Lord. So she was pained to do that. ‘And serve him in truth with all your heart.’ The words ‘in truth’ mean faithfully, not for show but out of desire to advance his cause. A better translation would be ‘faithfully serve him’, with ‘all your heart’. You could almost underline every phrase, every word here, ‘all your heart.’ It is no good getting full of feeling and concern to serve the Lord in some way, when you know there is a whole area of your time and ambitions you are keeping for yourself. ‘All your heart.’ And then the final duty: ‘Consider how great things he hath done for you.’ That's a complete message: just that verse, worthy of long consideration in private. ‘We love him because he first loved us’, says John.
‘Moreover, Samuel says, As for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and right way.’ I remember reading in a paper published by a particular seminary in the USA, their theological journal, a man wrote an article and he said, strangely, ‘Nowhere in the Bible are we urged to pray for lost souls.’ We can surely think of various Scriptures which amounts to just that: praying for lost souls, but here is an example, because these people are certainly lost. Here in this verse it is described as a sin not to pray for the lost. Everyone who loves Christ, who is a child of God, must have a similar burden, and has a ministry of intercession as part of their private devotions. There are one or more people on your mind and on your heart, who you are currently praying for, who are lost. Every Christian should have a ministry of intercession, and Samuel put it this way: ‘God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you.’