Week 5 – Tuesday – Reminders

Ebenezers
Yesterday we talked about baptism being a symbolic reminder. We’re going to talk about symbols later in the week, but I wanted to talk just for a moment about reminders. If you have spent much time around church in your life, you have probably heard this verse from the Hymn “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”:

“Here I raise mine Ebenezer,
Hither by Thy help I’m come,
And I hope by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home.”

Ebenezer is a weird word. It sounds like a grandmother’s name or something. It actually comes from the Scripture and is a pretty beautiful picture:

Go read 1 Samuel 7:10-14.
<> Why would Samuel set up a rock?
<> Have you ever set up something in your life to remind you, “Thus far has the Lord helped us”?

Relying on Rocks
Throughout my life I have learned two things about the way people learn: 1.) We are very slow to learn. 2.) We are very quick to forget. Here’s the beautiful thing about Samuel’s Ebenezer. There’s a certain notion that rocks change much more slowly than we do. In some ways, rocks are smarter than us. It’s like Samuel assumes, “there is going to come a day when we all start to forget what God has done for us, and we are going to need this the testimony of a rock – this rock that doesn’t fluctuate with every selfish notion, theological trend or unexplainable hardship.”

<> What are areas of your life that you need to set up an Ebenezer – an unchanging reminder of what God has done in your life?
<> What are some lessons God has taught you that you have been struggling to live out recently?
<> How did he originally teach you? What’s getting in the way of your obedience now?