Monday meditation: The act and the fact of commemorating God at work
Today’s reading shows us Samuel setting up a rock to mark the place where God intervened to send his enemies running away in fear.
What symbol would you choose to commemorate how God has blessed you in a special way?
Most of us would find something different than a rock.
Maybe we’d buy or make a plaque to record the place or the moment or the year when we saw God act.
Maybe we’d mark our calendar or send ourselves a digital reminder so we could celebrate his special blessing again and again.
Maybe we’d write a letter of appreciation to a person who communicated to us God’s peace just when we needed it most.
Maybe we’d keep a journal and regularly read it to remember how God helped us cope with what we were facing.
One time I wrote a check to commemorate God’s blessing. It was several years ago, and my wife underwent surgery to remove a strange growth in her abdomen the doctors couldn’t diagnose from an MRI. I feared cancer, of course. And because of its location, it might have caused a complication with the colon. When the doctor told me—after a very long surgery—that it was simply a large sac of infection (no cancer, no colostomy bag), I trembled with relief. Soon I decided to give a generous thank offering to a mission whose work I love. It meant much to me to make a bit of a sacrifice in gratitude for what my wife and I had received.
How we mark our blessings may not be as important as the act and fact of doing so. It’s easy to plow forward without stopping to realize how God is helping. It’s easy to become so consumed with coping that we can’t see God’s hand at work.
It’s easy to become so consumed with coping that we can’t see God’s hand at work.
The enemy God helps us battle may not be a thundering army. Our enemy may be something small and silent, like fear or worry or jealousy or despair. Or grief. But our enemy could be something large and looming, like an expense we hadn’t anticipated or a decision we never wanted to make. Some face several of these foes all at the same time.
No matter our adversary, we do well to see how God is with us in the battle. And then to find some specific way to thank him for his help—something we can look at and maybe even show to others to testify to them, “Here’s how God was my ‘Rock of Help.’”
Read: 1 Samuel 7:3-15 The Message
Pray: You have been so, so good to me, Father. Even in the disappointments or the struggles, I’ve seen you at work. Please help me as I find a way to remember your help. Encourage me as I look back on my specific action, and use it as a testimony to others of your steadfast love.
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