Thus Far
“Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, 'Thus far the Lord has helped us.'”
— 1 Samuel 7:12 (NIV)
Ebenezer means stone of help. Samuel put a rock by the roadside. Anyone walking past would ask what it was for, and the story got told again. Notice the wording: thus far. Not everything is finished and not every problem is solved. It marks how far God has already brought them, at a spot people keep walking past.
Samuel did not trust memory, so he set up a stone everyone could see. He wanted the story told out loud, not just remembered. Something you came through this year deserves a marker too. Pick something you will actually see.
Set Up a Stone
- 1Put one physical object somewhere visible: a stone, a photo, a ticket. Let it stand for one thing God carried you through.
- 2When someone asks about it, tell them. That is the whole point of the stone.
Lord, thus far You have helped me. Today I am saying it out loud.
I will mark it so I do not forget.
What does Ebenezer mean?
Stone of help. The name turned a roadside rock into a question anyone passing would ask about.
Why does thus far matter?
It claims nothing about the future. Samuel marks the ground already covered without pretending the story is over.
Why a physical object?
A visible marker forces the story to be retold whenever someone asks what it is. Memory alone rarely does that.