{"id":896,"date":"2014-09-15T21:30:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-16T01:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=896"},"modified":"2014-09-16T07:02:45","modified_gmt":"2014-09-16T11:02:45","slug":"896","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=896","title":{"rendered":"Here I Raise My Ebenezer* – Stones of Remembrance to a Faithful God"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2014<\/a><\/p>\n

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. – James 1:17<\/p>\n

What a weekend we’ve had…whew! Over the course of a few days, we’ve seen God answer prayers that have been\u00a0daily raised to Him\u00a0for several months. His timing is perfect and I’m reminded of that every time His answers come at what seems, for us, the eleventh hour.<\/p>\n

Above my kitchen sink is this small pile of stones. I’ve loved rocks since my childhood\u00a0trailing around behind a mom who loved rocks. She has moved stones in and around our yard for years, making rock walls and garden paths. We’ve collected stones from around the world, weighing down our bags with precious finds from ocean beaches, mountain trails, forest streams, and rocky deserts. These became stones of remembrance from those trips.<\/p>\n

My little pile of rocks has no particular answered prayers attached to the stones. They just remind me, every time I look at them, of the faithfulness of God. It’s not like I always need visual reminders of God because we are surrounded by them. These windowsill sitters do help me to remember His constancy in my life and His care of His people throughout history.<\/p>\n

Here…above my kitchen sink…”I raise my Ebenezer*” (from 1 Samuel 7:12) – my stones of remembrance\u00a0that say, to my heart, “thus far the Lord has helped us.”<\/p>\n

You may be waiting for Him to answer a prayer of your own. Don’t let your circumstances blur your vision of God; keep your eyes and heart fixed on Him. Sometime\u00a0in the days ahead, you will add a “stone” to your\u00a0heap of gratefulness, as you see Him move…either in the situation, or in you, or both…most probably\u00a0both.<\/p>\n

I leave you with an old hymn\u00a0written by Robert Robinson who, as a young man, would have destroyed his life, but God had a different plan for him.\u00a0Robinson wrote beautifully of this faithful, loving God who does not let us go.<\/p>\n

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing<\/strong>**<\/p>\n

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
\nTune my heart to sing Thy grace;
\nStreams of mercy, never ceasing,
\nCall for songs of loudest praise.
\nTeach me some melodious sonnet,
\nSung by flaming tongues above.
\nPraise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
\nMount of Thy redeeming love.<\/p>\n

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
\nTill released from flesh and sin,
\nYet from what I do inherit,
\nHere Thy praises I’ll begin;
\nHere I raise my Ebenezer*;
\nHere by Thy great help I’ve come;
\nAnd I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
\nSafely to arrive at home.<\/p>\n

Jesus sought me when a stranger,
\nWandering from the fold of God;
\nHe, to rescue me from danger,
\nInterposed His precious blood;
\nHow His kindness yet pursues me
\nMortal tongue can never tell,
\nClothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
\nI cannot proclaim it well.<\/p>\n

O to grace how great a debtor
\nDaily I’m constrained to be!
\nLet Thy goodness, like a fetter,
\nBind my wandering heart to Thee.
\nProne to wander, Lord, I feel it,
\nProne to leave the God I love;
\nHere’s my heart, O take and seal it,
\nSeal it for Thy courts above.<\/p>\n

O that day when freed from sinning,
\nI shall see Thy lovely face;
\nClothed then in blood washed linen
\nHow I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
\nCome, my Lord, no longer tarry,
\nTake my ransomed soul away;
\nSend thine angels now to carry
\nMe to realms of endless day.<\/p>\n

YouTube Video with Lyrics – Come Thou Fount<\/em> – David Crowder Band<\/a><\/p>\n

*“Here I Raise my Ebenezer<\/em>” – origin of word and phrase<\/a>\u00a0–\u00a0Ebenezer –\u00a0 Hebrew words \u2019Eben h\u00e0-ezer (eh\u2019-ben haw-e\u2019-zer)\u00a0– <\/strong>\u00a0\u201cstone of help\u201d<\/p>\n

**<\/em>Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing<\/em><\/a> – Lyrics & Story Behind the Song<\/a><\/p>\n

On Thankfulness<\/a><\/p>\n

20 Bible Verses On Being Thankful – Jarrid Wilson<\/a><\/p>\n

23 Bible Verses on Gratitude<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. – James 1:17 What a weekend we’ve had…whew! Over the course of a few days, we’ve seen God answer prayers that have been\u00a0daily raised to Him\u00a0for several … Continue reading Here I Raise My Ebenezer* – Stones of Remembrance to a Faithful God<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[33,18,317,353,432,433,610,1,32],"tags":[614,361,613,616,618,615,611,621,617,620,612,1843],"class_list":["post-896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspired","category-jesus","category-lessons-learned","category-monday-morning-moment","category-music","category-pray","category-thanksgiving-or-gratefulness","category-uncategorized","category-walk-with-god","tag-answered-prayer","tag-blessings","tag-come-thou-fount","tag-david-crowder-band","tag-ebenezer","tag-goodness-of-god","tag-grateful","tag-jarrid-wilson","tag-robert-robinson","tag-stone-of-remembrance","tag-thankful","tag-thanksgiving"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sauPAB-896","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=896"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":910,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896\/revisions\/910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}