God Will Never Let You Down but Will Help You

I found it's good for us to remember certain verses in some hymns by heart. I find that very useful in some time of pressure or something happens which I don't anticipate to remind myself of some verse in a hymn. One of them is this.

This is one verse in a hymn which says, his love in time past, do you know that hymn? His love in time past forbids me to think that he will leave me at last in trouble to sink. Each sweet Ebenezer, Ebenezer is, I'll come to that in a moment, each sweet Ebenezer that we have in review confirms his good pleasure to carry me through. In other words, he's not going to take us halfway across the river and say I'm fed up with you, I'm going to dump you here.

It's impossible. His love in time past. That means I've got to think of the events in my life in the past where he carried me through, forbids me to think that he will leave me at last in trouble to sink.

Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review confirms his good pleasure to carry me through. There are a few verses like this in some hymns which I memorize and I find they are a tremendous encouragement to me whenever some pressure or temptation comes. I would encourage you to memorize some meaningful verses in some hymns.

Second, 1 Samuel chapter 7, that's where we read this word Ebenezer. And it's good to know that story. For those of you who don't know it, it's a time when it says in 1 Samuel 7, the Philistines heard that the Israelites had gathered and when the sons of Israel heard it, the last part of verse 7, they were afraid of the Philistines.

The Old Testament stories, don't neglect them. There are many lessons in those stories to encourage us. Here is a time when the Philistines, and we think of the Philistines like the problems we face, have come against us and they were afraid.

And we come into situations where we are afraid. And so what did the sons of Israel do? They came to Samuel and said pray. Now we come in the name of Jesus.

We don't have to go to a Samuel or anybody else. We go straight in the name of Jesus and pray to the Father and say, hear us and save us from this situation. And we read here that the Lord, the Philistines, listen to this verse 10.

As Samuel was offering the burnt offerings like when we are praying, picture that burnt offerings like we are praying, the difficult situation the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel, but the Lord thundered with a great thunder and the Philistines and confused them and they were defeated. That's written for our encouragement. That the God who lived in Samuel's time is just the same today.

And he'll do more for us than he did for him. And then verse 12, Samuel took a stone and named it Ebenezer, saying, thus far the Lord has helped us. One of the things that I have encouraged different families to do is whenever you've had a crisis situation where you felt that there's been a really serious problem that you or your family are facing and you prayed and the Lord did a miracle, you must write it down.

Open a folder in your computer and just a few lines with the date, location, place, what happened, write it down, write it down, write it down. And next time something happens, don't make a huge page of it, just one small paragraph with the little details of place, time, and what happened. Next time something happens, go back to that folder and add something.

And many years later, you'll have a little book if you print it out. And I often told people when your children grow up and get married, give them a copy of that. That will be like a second Bible for them.

Not only the stories of the Philistines and the Amorites and all the other heights who attacked Israel, but living stories from your own family's history. It's a very good thing. I remember when somebody asked me to write a little bit of, you know, the book, which is Day of Small Beginnings, when the folks in Kerala asked me to write one page at a time of something that had happened in my past life.

I had to rack my mind like anything to think. And I couldn't remember dates and all that. And that's when I decided that I will tell believers, please write down with dates and events and people and all that.

Whenever you get some miracle that the Lord has done for you, maybe your son got an admission somewhere or some got a job or something like that, write it down. And it doesn't take more than three, four lines and put the date and the place. And it's like an Ebenezer.

Here's another Ebenezer. The Lord is, Ebenezer means, thus far the Lord helped us. And then you go to another situation, thus far the Lord helped us.

And if you have an accumulation of stories like that, that's the best thing to encourage you when you face a new situation like that. See, let me give you one more example. In 2nd Chronicles, this is one of my favorite passages in the Old Testament.

2nd Chronicles, chapter 20. It says here, there was a great multitude. In verse 2, Jehoshaphat is a God-fearing king in Judah.

And in 2nd Chronicles 20, verse 2, there was a report that came, a great multitude has come against you from so many different places. And it says in the last part of verse 1, they came to war against Jehoshaphat. These Old Testament stories are pictures of some trial from here and there and all.

And sometimes so many trials seem to come together at the same time. And that's what he faced. And Jehoshaphat was afraid.

And we can be afraid. But when you're afraid, you must do what Jehoshaphat did. He turned his attention away from the problem and sought the Lord.

Can you do that? You see, there's a, in our inner soul, there's a mind with which we hear and think. And then there's a thing called emotion, which is feeling. And there's a thing called a will.

Our soul is our mind and our feelings, our emotions and our will. And we must learn to live in our will all the time. That means the mind is, so many things are happening and coming into our mind.

And our emotions are all stirred. That's the time I say, I'm not going to live in my mind. I'm not going to live in my emotions.

I'm going to live in my will. My will is on the side of the Lord. Lord, Thy will be done in my life, not my will.

So Jehoshaphat began to seek the Lord. And when he prayed, see what he prayed. He reminded the Lord of all the things.

He was reminding himself, actually. He doesn't have to remind God. But he was saying this in prayer to remind himself, Lord, verse six, you're the God who ruler over the nations and all might.

Didn't you drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people and gave it to your descendants of Abraham? That's what I mean by a record in your computer. Lord, you remember on that date, you did this for me. And then, and then some other time, you did this for me.

And then this other time you did for me. And then if you get a promise from scripture, add that also there. Some very special promise in a particular time that really helped you.

Add it in that folder. Lord, you said, here's a promise that if evil comes and we cry out to you, you'll answer me. And now see, Lord, these problems of these people, these sons of Ammon and all have come.

What shall we do? God, won't you judge them? And when you come to the Lord, there are three things to say. Okay. Number one was 12.

We don't have power. We don't have the powerless. That means we don't have the ability to handle the situation.

This situation is too much for us. Can you say that number one? This situation, Lord, is too much for me. Second, we don't know what to do.

Verse 12 again. This situation is too much for me. This is, I don't know what to do in this situation, Lord.

I really don't know. I have so many options and nothing seems to work. And number three, most important, but our eyes are on you.

That's a tremendous verse. Second Chronicles 20 verse 12. Whenever we face a situation, Lord, I don't know what, this is too much for me.

I can't handle it. We are powerless. And second, we don't know what to do.

But our eyes are on you. If you stop with two, you'll be confused. You say the third statement.

And again, you see how the Lord, spirit of the Lord came and the Lord defeated the people. And instead of fighting in the battle, it says they went out praising the Lord. And you will be praising the Lord.

And we can, once we have prayed like that, we can exercise our will and say, I'm not going to live my emotions anymore. I'm not going to live in my feelings. I'm not even going to be bothered by the thoughts that come to my mind.

My will is set on God's side. And I'm going to say, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will will be done. You will not allow me to be tested beyond my ability, but you will deliver me from evil.

And so thine be the glory forever and ever. Amen. May the Lord help us.