It is important to remember how faithful God was to us in our past. Recalling those memories will ensure that we will walk in faith into the future. Those recollections will redefine our fearful emotions and direct our actions, especially when a threat seems overwhelming. I discovered something last week that took me back in time and caused me to remember.
Our home was an officer’s residence built during World War II at Camp White in southern Oregon. In 1948 when the camp was decommissioned, the house was bought at auction and moved to the site where our home now sits. Last week, I discovered something I had not seen before as I was bending down to tie my shoes. I saw the inscription of “1960” etched into a cement wall that borders our driveway. It was a marker in time put there by the original owners to remember that date. Remembering, if directed by the Lord, is a spiritual act.
I Samuel 7 depicts a time when Israel was living under the threat of an imminent attack from the Philistines. In preparation for the coming battle, Samuel instructed Israel, “If you want to return to the Lord with all your hearts, get rid of your foreign gods and your images of Ashtoreth. Turn your hearts to the Lord and obey him alone; then he will rescue you from the Philistines. So the Israelites got rid of their images of Baal and Ashtoreth and worshiped only the Lord” (I Samuel 7: 3-4).
Israel came together as a nation and offered sacrifices to the Lord accompanied by a day of fasting, confessing their sins against God. Even as they worshipped God and realigned themselves with God, fear was still present. “The Israelites were badly frightened when they learned that the Philistines were approaching. (vs. 7). As the Philistines came to attack Israel, “The Lord spoke with a mighty voice of thunder from heaven that day, and the Philistines were thrown into such confusion that the Israelites defeated them” (vs. 10).
After the battle, Samuel selected a stone and marked it with the name “Ebenezer” meaning “the stone of help.” That stone marker would remind the Israelites that day into the future that victory only came because of God. The Ebenezer stone was erected so that Israel would remember it was God’s grace that gave them the victory and to make sure that all the glory from that victory went to God.
Battles are coming where only God can bring the victory. Those victories need to be remembered so that in future battles we will have a record of God’s faithful intervention when fear was gripping our hearts. Remembering God’s past interventions and marking our lives with those acts will be part of the preparation of remembrance we will need to have in place to faithfully engage what is coming our way.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Garris Elkins
Featured Image by Mirosław i Joanna Bucholc from Pixabay
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