Ebenezer Scrooge?

Here I raise my ebenezer hither by thy help I've come. If you've been a church-goer for a while, you are no doubt familiar with this phrase from the second stanza of Come Thou Fount. But have you ever wondered 'what in the world is an ebenezer?'  The first thing that usually comes to people's minds is Ebenezer Scrooge but actually, ebenezer is a Biblical term. It comes from the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 7.  After fasting all day and confessing their sins, the children of Israel were saved from the Philistine army by the Lord.  Verse 10 says But the Lord thundered against [the Philistines] with loud thunder. They were so frightened they became confused. So the Israelites defeated the Philistines in battle.  After their victory, the prophet Samuel set up a monument to the Lord representing how he'd been faithful to them.  Verse 12 says After this happened Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named the stone Ebenezer, saying, “The Lord has helped us to this point.”

So, now that the definition of the word ebenezer is clear, what should we in modern times do about it?  Well, I say we set up our own ebenezer(s); mental monuments to God's faithfulness in our lives!  Here's my recent ebenezer.

On a Thursday in June, God gave me some medical help with regards to the prolonged illness I've been suffering with.  Soon after, this help allowed a type of spiritual awakening in my heart.  And so because my heart was awake and being stirred by the Holy Spirit, the Lord began to reveal things to me; things that needed some attention; things I needed to surrender to him. This process culminated one week after it started.  It was a HARD week - physically, emotionally and spiritually - but I realized the next day that something supernatural had happened to me; something only the Holy Spirit could do.

So, I set up an ebenezer.  I put the dates in the calendar on my phone explaining in the "notes" section everything that had transpired during that week.  Then I set up the calendar to give me a yearly reminder of this monumental event.  Now, every year I'll raise my ebenezer [remembering that] hither by thy help I've come.

Do you have an ebenezer?  Why not set up a reminder, an ebenezer, so that you'll never forget God's faithfulness to you during that time?