"Stone of help"

 

 

“Life—every life—has a full share of ups and downs. Indeed, we see … many blessings that do not always look or feel like blessings”

 

Howard W. Hunter

 

I sorrow that a single drop of His blood was shed for me. I pray that someday I will meet the Savior. I will kneel and kiss the wounded hands and feet, and He will wipe away my tears. I pray that He will say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Because of His mercy, we have hope. He is the “fount of every blessing.” Of this I testify in the name of the greatest example of sacrifice, even Jesus Christ, amen.

 

Robert K. Dellenbach

 

 

This far you have brought me.

 

 

Come, Thou 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 Thy redeeming love.

 

 

Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Hither by Thy help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
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.

 

 

Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.
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.

 

 

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, 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.

 

Spencer W. Kimball said that remember could be the most important word in the dictionary….

 

…..the importance and value of remembering our own spiritual experiences and recognizing that these experiences, given to us by the Lord, have brought us to where each of us is today. In other words, by remembering we are raising our own Ebenezer.

As Robert Robinson penned the last verse of “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” he noted the tendency of man forget God:

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.

The author of this song died in 1790. It is believed that he had also wandered from the God he loved. A widely told but unverifiable story relates that while he was riding in a stagecoach, a lady passenger sitting next to him was humming the tune of this now well-known hymn. Robinson turned to the lady and responded, saying, “Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.

I testify that as we seek opportunities to feel of the Spirit and make efforts to reflect often upon those experiences, we will raise our own Ebenezers—our own stones of remembrance—that will enable us to see God’s hand in our past and will give us assurance and faith that He will provide for us in the future.

Curt Holman