Daily Devotional for Tuesday, June 27

The Stone of Help

“Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us,” 1 Samuel 7:12

For twenty long years, the ark set in silence at Kirjath-jearim.  The people cried in their affliction to God, but the man of God spoke of repentance. Twenty years seems like forever when God is not answering the way you think He ought to. The problem was that the people were crying but there were still idols in their life. God wasn’t going to help until they moved Baalim and Ashteroth from their presence. 

The prayer of a servant of God on your behalf is significant.  If you are a servant of the Highest, you should let others know you are praying for them and not just with them.  It is a powerful thing.  More importantly, though, the people gathered and said, “We have sinned against the Lord.” It was a time of repentance.  They begged Samuel to continue to pray for them that God would save them. The man of God prayed fervently, and God heard him.

So often, a time of repentance is scary.  When you put away things out of your life that are keeping you from serving God alone, the enemy is sure to gather. God will even use this for the good of them that love Him, “and are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). In spite of their fear, God thundered. Perhaps this is the time the Psalmist sang about in Psalm 18:13,14.  Samuel wanted to make sure they all remembered who helped them that day,  so he set up the stone between Mizphah and Shen and called it Eben-ezer.  One of our songwriters wrote, “Here I raise mine Eben-ezer, hither by thine help I’m come.”

THOUGHT: Repent and ask God to help you then set raise up your own Eben-ezer to remind you that you got here with God’s help.

David Thompson