Ebenezer

God placed this song on my heart last night. It has brought me such peace and joy. And since the next chapter from Captivating is the one that God used to break me, and I might have to blog it over a couple posts, I thought I would share this hymn first.

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, written by Robert Robinson in 1757. I don't know much about the background of this hymn, but the words have such healing power when you let them touch your soul.

Come, though fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it,
Mount of They redeeming love.

Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Hither by Thy help I'm come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let that grace now like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

In 1 Samuel 7, the Israelites are delivered from the Philistines. Samuel in verse 3 speaks to them saying, "If you return to the LORD with all your heart, remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your hearts to the LORD and serve HIM alone; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines." So the people did do this. They turned from false idols and purged their souls and belongings. And God did deliver them from the Philistines. After this happens, in verse 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."

The purpose of this stone was for the Israelites to look upon it and remember how God has helped them so far. It is a remembrance not just of the deliverance from their enemy, but a remembrance of the fact that first they had to turn and trust wholly on God. To purge their hearts, minds, souls and lives of all idols and follow God.

God has brought me to a point now, where I have been shown idols in my life that I didn't know were there. He has revealed them and I choose to turn from them and serve Him alone!