Everybody Needs an Ebenezer

A few days ago I read a tweet that said, in effect, "Many of us write in a journal, but not many of us read our journals." When I saw that, it hit a nerve with me because I was taught a long time ago the discipline of keeping a journal, but I don't regularly go back and read it. It dawned on me that the reason I need to be journaling isn't so I can record my brilliant spiritual insights for future generations (which are few and far between by the way). It is so I can go back and be reminded of how God has worked in my life.

So this morning I took some time and went back and started reading the journal I'm currently using. I started this particular journal at the end of January last year. As I started reading, I was a bit surprised. I forgot what a spiritual funk I was in last winter and early spring. I had a couple of thoughts pop in my head. One was, "Man I was really in a bad place spiritually!", and the other was, "Am I really that big of a baby?" I confess that there was a lot of complaining, and "woe is me", and "I'm such a loser" in those pages. There was also a lot of praise and thanks for how God was working and transforming my life.

Reading those pages helped me to realize that in the last year, God has been extremely faithful in my life. I knew that He was faithful, but here, literally in "black and white", I had evidence of how God had brought me through a very low point in my life spiritually. I saw how His mercy and grace had carried me when I was ready to give up. I hope it doesn't shock you to know that pastors get discouraged, and disillusioned, and distracted by life. There are times when we keep smiling in church, but in private we want to quit. I know many Christians feel the same way at times, but that's where the journal comes in handy. It reminds of God's faithfulness in the past and it serves as a promise of God's faithfulness in the future.

In the Old Testament the Israelites had a practice of setting up a large stone  as a monument to help remind them of God's faithfulness to them. This was called an "Ebenezer". Now, this has nothing to do with Dickens or Scrooge, but everything to do with God's faithfulness. Ebenezer comes from two Hebrew words, eben which means "stone", and ezer which means "help", literally "stone of help". 1 Samuel 7:12 is an example of this practice, "Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, 'Till now the Lord has helped us.'" Samuel set up this Ebenezer following God's incredible delivery of the people of Israel from an attack by the Philistines, to serve as a reminder of what God had done. We do the same thing in our culture. We set up statues and pillars and obelisks to commerate great battles or important historical events. We do this because we tend to quickly forget the past and we need to be constantly reminded.

An example of an "Ebenezer" from Scotland.

My journal serves as an Ebenezer in my life. I was incredibly encouraged after reading my journal this morning to see how God has brought me through hardships. How I have grown in my faith over the last year. How I have seen the Lord bring me victory over doubts and discouragements. These reminders of His past faithfulness help me believe fully in His future work on my behalf.

So the question is, "Do you have any Ebenezers set up in your life?" If you are not keeping a journal or at least jotting down things to remember how God has worked in your life, I strongly encourage you to do so. Part of being humans is facing discouragement, getting down, going through times of struggle and hardship. In fact, part of the message that Paul and Barnabas preached on their first missionary journey was, "through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). Therefore, expect hard times to come, but when they do, remind yourself, "God has been faithful before, He will be faithful again and He will bring me through this." Then pull out your "Ebenezer" and remind yourself of His past faithfulness.

Now granted, sometimes it is unpleasant to remember the past. We all have things we'd like to forget. But remembering how bad things were and seeing that you made it through with God's grace is an incredibly encouraging thing. It helps you see that there really is nothing that God can't overcome in your life. The philosopher George Santayana once said, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it" (you'd never guess my undergrad was in history). There is much truth in that. Life is cyclical and what has been will be again, "there is no new thing under the sun" (Ecclesiates 1:9). So when we can remind ourselves of what God has done in the past, we are armed to face what will come in the future. Remember, God holds everything in His hands; past, present, and future.

So do you have an Ebenezer?