“Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, ‘Thus far the LORD has helped us.’” 1 Samuel 7:12 (NKJV)
1 Samuel 7 contains a detail that is easy to miss. Before Samuel ever set up his stone, Scripture tells us the ark of the covenant had remained in Kirjath Jearim for twenty years (1 Samuel 7:2). Twenty years of a nation slowly turning its heart back toward God. Then came Mizpah: repentance, a cry for help, and a God who thundered from heaven on Israel’s behalf. When the battle was over, Samuel did not move straight on to the next thing. He stopped, took a stone, and named it: Ebenezer. Stone of help. “Thus far the LORD has helped us.”
The stone did not mark Israel’s strength. It marked God’s help.
This was not the first time God’s people had been told to remember in this manner. When Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground, God instructed Joshua to take twelve stones from the riverbed and set them up on the other side, “that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’” (Joshua 4:6). The stones were not for decoration. They were for the next generation. Every memorial was a sermon waiting to be preached to children not yet born.
That is the power of remembering. What God has done is never meant to stay with the people who saw it. It is meant to be told.
As Shake The Nations marks twenty years, we are standing in an Ebenezer moment. This past month alone added fresh stones to the pile. In England and in Peru, God moved in power. Many were commissioned and sent out with fresh fire, carrying the Gospel into fields we will never personally see. Alongside them, a new company of evangelists from evangelist360 is now going out. When the next generation asks, “What do these stones mean?”, the answer is simple: God helped us. Every step of the way, He helped us.
But notice the wording Samuel chose. Not “finally the LORD has helped us.” Not “at last.” Thus far. An Ebenezer is not a finish line. It is a marker on a road that keeps going. Paul captured the same confidence centuries later: “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). The God who helped us thus far is not finished helping. The stones behind us are the proof of the road ahead.
This Thanksgiving season, take time to build your own memorial. Name the moments in your life when God came through when you could not. Tell them to someone who needs to hear them. Remembering is not nostalgia. It is fuel. It is how faith is passed from one generation to the next.
Thus far, the Lord has helped us. And He is not done!
