Here I Raise My Ebenezer

“Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I’m come…”

Say what? Sometimes, especially with Christians, I wonder how often we take into consideration what the words mean that we sing so very often. This line comes from my most favorite hymn of all times (and the only song I can play on the piano). But I have to admit, I would have no idea what it meant to raise an Ebenezer had someone not preached a very meaningful sermon on the matter at some point in my youth.

The term “Ebenezer” that this hymn refers to actually comes directly from Scripture. The Hebrew term literally means “Stone of Help.”

In the book of 1 Samuel, the Lord helps the Israelites defeat the Philistines in battle, and to commemorate the victory, Samuel set up a “Stone of Help,” or an Ebenezer, to serve as a continual reminder to the Israelites and everyone else of what God had done for them and where He had brought them.

Much has changed since Samuel’s day, but one thing I know is still true from my own personal experience is that God is still active in the lives of His people. Though I get busy with life and everything that goes along with it, when I go back and look over the course of my life, I can see His hand at work throughout it, leading and guiding me to where I needed to be, and helping me in my times of need.

Certainly, though, setting up a literal stone to serve as a reminder to me of God’s continued faithfulness in my life would not be quite as meaningful nowadays as it was back then.

But it doesn’t mean it’s not equally as important.

Tonight, I was reminded again just how meaningful this is in my own life.

I was always encouraged to journal by my spiritual leaders throughout my middle school and high school years. I was told to journal my prayers and my times with God, because it would be beneficial to be able to look back over my journey with God and see where He had brought me.

Now, I have to admit (and much to my chagrin as a writer), I have never been great at journaling. I don’t know why, but for some reason I could never be very consistent with it. I can go strong for several days or maybe even weeks, but then there may be months and months where I simply just don’t take the time to write it down.

But from the times I have taken the time to write it down, I can attest to its significance.

The summer of 2010, while I was away at an internship in Orlando, I struggled with knowing where God wanted me in terms of a church when I returned home. For reasons I won’t go into right now, I found myself incredibly unhappy at the church I had been attending since I was young. Yet, I did not want to leave based on my own dislikes, nor did I want to stay simply because it was comfortable to me or because it was all I had known for so long.

I know this may sound like a trivial matter, but words cannot express the amount of turmoil and heartache that I was experiencing at this time. Yet, I knew that the best place to be in life is in the center of God’s will—even in the “trivial” matters of life.

So, I began to pray. And pray and pray and pray. All summer long.

And it wasn’t until nearly the end of my time in Orlando that God finally spoke to my heart. I felt Him confirm in me through Scripture that He was leading me in a new direction, away from where I’d been and what I’d known. And yet, being the doubter that I am, one word was not good enough for me.

I began to pray more insistently, pressing for a definite confirmation. A few days later, not too long before I was about to head home, I received that confirmation, again through Scripture.

I returned home, confident in the direction God had called me, but secretly hoping He would come through on His end and not leave me church-hopping for months and months to come.

Two weeks later, I walked into City Church and knew I was home. I am extremely blessed to be a part of what God is doing in and through this group of people.

The main reason I was so insistent on a second confirmation, though, was because I knew that somehow, someway Satan would bring this decision up that I had made and cause me to doubt it. Granted, I assumed it would relate to the situation I was experiencing at the time. Never did I imagine he would bring it up when and how he is right now.

But because I wrote it down—my prayers and struggles in figuring out God’s will, along with His faithful confirmation in my heart and life, I have something to go back to—my “stone of help,” if you will, to remind myself that I am exactly where God has called me. And because of that, I am in the best place I could ever be.

So, here I raise my Ebenezer, 

                                                           here by His great help I’ve come!

Advertisement