There's a lovely practice in the Old Testament that is a good life lesson for us. Throughout the OT we find God's people building rock-cairns as monuments of remembrance.
When they walked through the Jordan river on dry land, they took 12 large stones (one for each tribe) from the river bed and piled them up on the river bank to commemorate God's miracle of opening the river for them.
In 1 Samuel 7:12 we read "Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far has the LORD helped us."
There are many other instances of rock pillars being made or places being named to remember something God had done for Israel.
If we make a habit of remembering those times that God has delivered us, they become a powerful aid when we face trouble again. Some people record their "Ebenezers" in a journal, others rely on their memories, others will keep a memento from a tough time on their desk or in a special box.
The bottom line is that when tough times come, we should have some way of recalling God's Track Record - that He has been good to us in the past and He is not about to stop now.
When facing a giant ahead of us, we need to look back at all the conquered Goliaths on our path and then set our hope on Him "that He will continue to deliver us."
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
