RAISING THE EBENEZER
DAY 120: When I was five years old (that would have been 1968) I watched an episode of the old back and white television show Dark Shadows with my sister and my older cousins. I can't remember what happened in the episode but I remember being terrified. I had never even heard of a vampire before that day - and not a day passed after that I didn't fear I was being stalked by one.
I'm not talking about being a little scared; I spent years being terrified because of that show. I was scared of the dark. I was scared of Dracula. I was scared of werewolves. I was scared of shadows. I was just scared whenever the sun went down. It wasn't reasonable, but it was real. As a teenager I told myself it was insane to believe in vampires - and I didn't. But I was convinced if I said I didn't out loud, one would get me as I slept. So I kept my confidence to myself and pulled the covers tightly around my neck. There was nothing logical about the way I felt.
As a young mom I still struggled with a powerful fear of the dark. It's can be a bit of a hindrance to get up and take care of your baby in the middle of the night if you are convinced you could be turned into a blood sucking vampire on the way to the nursery. As a believer in Jesus Christ, I knew that He had the power to free me from that place of crazy fear. So one night when my husband was out of town on business and I was home alone with the kids I pleaded with God for help. God answered with a Bible verse.
Proverbs 3:24 When you lie down, you will not be afraid;
When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
25 Do not be afraid of sudden fear
Nor of the onslaught of the wicked when it comes;
26 For the Lord will be your confidence
And will keep your foot from being caught.
For three straight nights, with shadows playing on the walls tempting me to panic, I said that verse over and over allowing God to convince me that His help is real. Then a miraculous thing happened. On the fourth night I couldn't sleep - but his time it was not because of fear, but because the bathroom light I always kept on was keeping me awake. There was too much light for me to sleep! After 25 years of paralyzing fear, my help came from God. The fear was completely gone.
Fast forward 15 years. I was recently invited to travel to Romania to serve with a ministry and also speak at an area women's conference. It is my first trip to serve out of the US but has been a dream to reach the hearts of women around the world. As I began to research the town of Sighisoara, where I would be declaring the power of freedom in Jesus Christ I was amazed at the what God had chosen for a starting place: the birthplace of Vlad Dracula.
Isn't God fun!! Vlad Dracula, or Vlad the Impaler, inspired the fictional character of Dracula - who inspired decades of fear in my life. God was giving me the opportunity to claim a place of great defeat in my life as a place of great victory. There, in a place I feared most of my life, I got to declare that God, who sets captives free, is my Help.
It is like I am living out the Bible passage from today's reading. In 1 Samuel 4 & 5, Ebenezer is mentioned as a place about about four miles south of Gilgal, where the Israelites were defeated two times by the Philistines and the Ark of the Covenant was stolen. As usual, they were acting on their own, outside of the direction and the will of God. When they eventually repented and returned to the Lord, the prophet Samuel "pleaded with the Lord to help Israel and the Lord answered."
Israel defeated the Philistines with God's help and their land became secure.
As a reminder of what God had done, Samuel took the nation back to the place of their defeat.
12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”
Ebenezer literally means "stone of help." Samuel set an upright stone (probably a boulder) as a reminder that God's help changed their defeat into victory. And he set it up at the very place of their previous defeat.
Their Ebenezer was four miles from Gilgal. Mine is 1200 miles away in a town in Romania. But my Ebenezer is also in other places i have experienced defeat right here at home. Where ever I have called out to God for help and He has answered - that is my Ebenezer.
Today I am challenged to not only remember those places, but that they should also be places others can recognized as God-helped. There is no shame in declaring that I was defeated but that I was helped by God. It is a blessing, in fact, to declare that the growth in my life is an Ebenezer of the Lord, a place of help, rather than an accomplishment of my own inadequate strength. Better than being able to declare half way across the globe that God is able to overcome all DARK SHADOWS, I can let my life show it here. And what could be better encouragement in the places of struggle now, then to gaze on all the Ebenezers raised before!!
What places of defeat are you willing to turn over to God and seek His help? Where has he already rescued, helped, set free or overcome for you that you could raise an Ebenezer, A STONE OF HELP, to declare what He has done for you for all to see? How wonderful that our places of greatest defeat can also be places to testify to God's great help!!
Day 120 of 365
1 Samuel 5
1 Samuel 6
1 Samuel 7
John 6:1-21
Psalm 106:13-31
Proverbs 14:32-33
I'm not talking about being a little scared; I spent years being terrified because of that show. I was scared of the dark. I was scared of Dracula. I was scared of werewolves. I was scared of shadows. I was just scared whenever the sun went down. It wasn't reasonable, but it was real. As a teenager I told myself it was insane to believe in vampires - and I didn't. But I was convinced if I said I didn't out loud, one would get me as I slept. So I kept my confidence to myself and pulled the covers tightly around my neck. There was nothing logical about the way I felt.
As a young mom I still struggled with a powerful fear of the dark. It's can be a bit of a hindrance to get up and take care of your baby in the middle of the night if you are convinced you could be turned into a blood sucking vampire on the way to the nursery. As a believer in Jesus Christ, I knew that He had the power to free me from that place of crazy fear. So one night when my husband was out of town on business and I was home alone with the kids I pleaded with God for help. God answered with a Bible verse. Proverbs 3:24 When you lie down, you will not be afraid;
When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
25 Do not be afraid of sudden fear
Nor of the onslaught of the wicked when it comes;
26 For the Lord will be your confidence
And will keep your foot from being caught.
For three straight nights, with shadows playing on the walls tempting me to panic, I said that verse over and over allowing God to convince me that His help is real. Then a miraculous thing happened. On the fourth night I couldn't sleep - but his time it was not because of fear, but because the bathroom light I always kept on was keeping me awake. There was too much light for me to sleep! After 25 years of paralyzing fear, my help came from God. The fear was completely gone.
Fast forward 15 years. I was recently invited to travel to Romania to serve with a ministry and also speak at an area women's conference. It is my first trip to serve out of the US but has been a dream to reach the hearts of women around the world. As I began to research the town of Sighisoara, where I would be declaring the power of freedom in Jesus Christ I was amazed at the what God had chosen for a starting place: the birthplace of Vlad Dracula.
Isn't God fun!! Vlad Dracula, or Vlad the Impaler, inspired the fictional character of Dracula - who inspired decades of fear in my life. God was giving me the opportunity to claim a place of great defeat in my life as a place of great victory. There, in a place I feared most of my life, I got to declare that God, who sets captives free, is my Help.
It is like I am living out the Bible passage from today's reading. In 1 Samuel 4 & 5, Ebenezer is mentioned as a place about about four miles south of Gilgal, where the Israelites were defeated two times by the Philistines and the Ark of the Covenant was stolen. As usual, they were acting on their own, outside of the direction and the will of God. When they eventually repented and returned to the Lord, the prophet Samuel "pleaded with the Lord to help Israel and the Lord answered."
Israel defeated the Philistines with God's help and their land became secure.
As a reminder of what God had done, Samuel took the nation back to the place of their defeat.
12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”
Their Ebenezer was four miles from Gilgal. Mine is 1200 miles away in a town in Romania. But my Ebenezer is also in other places i have experienced defeat right here at home. Where ever I have called out to God for help and He has answered - that is my Ebenezer.
Today I am challenged to not only remember those places, but that they should also be places others can recognized as God-helped. There is no shame in declaring that I was defeated but that I was helped by God. It is a blessing, in fact, to declare that the growth in my life is an Ebenezer of the Lord, a place of help, rather than an accomplishment of my own inadequate strength. Better than being able to declare half way across the globe that God is able to overcome all DARK SHADOWS, I can let my life show it here. And what could be better encouragement in the places of struggle now, then to gaze on all the Ebenezers raised before!!
What places of defeat are you willing to turn over to God and seek His help? Where has he already rescued, helped, set free or overcome for you that you could raise an Ebenezer, A STONE OF HELP, to declare what He has done for you for all to see? How wonderful that our places of greatest defeat can also be places to testify to God's great help!!
Day 120 of 365
1 Samuel 5
1 Samuel 6
1 Samuel 7
John 6:1-21
Psalm 106:13-31
Proverbs 14:32-33
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