Ebenezer is a good thing

This morning I woke up later than I have in a while....7am. The reason for this will be explained shortly but first I would like to explain some things to you.

Growing up in church there was a very popular song called Come Thou Fount. In this song there is a line that says, "Here I raise my ebenezer...", but what does that even mean? I have noticed that many time people sings songs and have no clue what they are saying. Anyone can see this just be listing to the radio. I will not go into listing lyrics to songs that make no sense because I do not want to get those stupid songs in your brain.

But when it comes to singing praise I believe we should know what we are saying.

I looked up the definition of ebenezer and it says it is a monument. It is making a marker to be seen that reminds one of God's faithfulness. (paraphrased)

What do you have in your life that you can look upon and remember something that God has done for you? I hope that when you listen to that old song and you sing those words, it will remind you of a time that God has done something in your life.

Ok...so now that you are caught up on what an ebenezer is let me explain why I woke up later than normal.

Last night my wife had the opportunity to hang out with a girl who is in college. She got to share her testimony and really have a great conversation with her, as well as make awesome banana bread. I came home after playing basketball with a bunch of old men who are in better shape than I am. I came home during the middle of Maggie telling her story. Her story and my story are very intertwined (we are married). While they were talking Maggie wanted to show her a video that we made for our wedding. It tells the whole story of what God did in our lives. So as a good husband I hooked the computer up to the TV to show the video. As I was watching this story of how God worked in our lives it was refreshing. To see how God's hand moved so evidently was awesome. It made me think about how easy it is to forget. We tend to live in the moment and not think about the bigger picture. We look at a problem or rough time and think this is the whole reality which has been and always will be. But watching that video reminded me that God is faithful.

This past year has been one of the hardest years of my life. There has been a lot of confusion, bitterness, loneliness, resentment all bottled up inside of me. But God is faithful. I so quickly forget that. We all do. That is why I believe that we are to have ebenezers in our life. Something that we can see and remember Gods faithfulness. Just like the 12 stones the Israelites placed by the Jordon when crossing into the promised land, we are to have markers of God faithfulness. This Satuerday marks one year of God bring us to Mobile Al. We have grown a lot. We have seen how easily we can turn to things other then God. When we look to ourselves and listen to our pride we will be lost in the woods. God has brought is to Mobile for a reason and a purpose. Now we want to be faithful to Him in how we live. We do not want to forget where God has brought us, as is so easy to do. Tomorrow we will be making our first ebenezer, although we could say our wedding video was the first but why debate. We do not know right now what it will look like, but I do know that when we look at this ebenezer in 20 years we will remember what God has done for us. This will be a reminder not only of God faithfulness but also his love and compassion and his willingness to use broken people who do not deserve to be at the throne of the King.