"Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I come. And I hope by Thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God. He to rescue me from danger, interpose his precious blood."
Ebenezer? Besides Scrooge, what is it? It is a stone that Samuel in the Old Testament raised in remembrance of God's grace towards the Israelites. The Old Testament is replete with stories of God's people raising pillars of stone in order to remember some defining moment in their lives. Jacob and Laban set up heaps of stone to remind themselves that they would do no harm to each other. Samuel raised this Ebenezer stone after a long period of Israel's disobedience to God; as a reminder of God's mercy and steadfast love. Joshua and the 12 men from the tribes piled 12 stones at the place where God pushed the waters of the Jordan River back for the children of Israel to walk into the Promised Land for the first time. God commanded them to raise this pillar for it to be a sign among them that when their children asked, "What do these stones mean to you?" all of Israel could say, "This was the day that God fulfilled his promise to us. This was the day we have waited over 400 years for. This was the day that changed everything for us."
Each of these stories is a reminder that we are so "prone to wander"...prone to forget. We no sooner receive one blessing from God, than we forget it and begin asking for something else-something more. But God, with His "goodness, like a fetter" seeks to bind us, to seal us. He commands us, just like the Israelites in the days of old, to remember. To raise Ebenezers. Because in our remembrance, we will not likely walk away from Him. When we remember His goodness, we cannot help but fall before Him in the adoration and praise that he desires from us. When we remember the depths from which He saved us, the bondage from which he redeemed us, the miry clay that He took us from to set us upon the Solid Rock...well...that's when He no longer has to seek to bind us or to seal us, we will willingly set our hearts before him. We will gladly call Him Lord...Master.
"Oh to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be. Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord I fear it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above."
#41. For the Ebenezers in my life...
July 22, 1991-the day I heard him call out my name. He said He loved me, and would never leave me, and I've never been the same!
February 1999- as a sophomore in college, God began showing me and teaching me to be totally dependent on Him.
July 10, 2004, July 17, 2005, December 14, 2007...the days that each of the most important people to me became part of my life.
March 7, 2012-The day that Elijah answered the call of God in his little life. And for anyone who thinks a six year old can't really know what they've done when they become a follower of Christ, I challenge you to talk to Elijah about it. He's reading a poem (that he wrote) tomorrow at school (the last day of this school year), and when I asked him what his poem was about, he very sweetly answered with, "It's about when I asked Jesus into my heart." He has told his teacher, friends, anyone that will listen to him about the change God has made in his life. I'm so proud of that kiddo!
May 24, 2012, the day that all of this dawned on me. These memorials are reminders of God's steadfast love, His mercies that are new every morning, and His grace that is marvelous, matchless, unchanging, and amazing.
