Help #8—Praise for the Helper

“Ah, Faithful God! Behold, you made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for you.” … “Behold, I am Yahweh, humanity’s creator; is anything too difficult for me?” Jeremiah 32:17, 27

“Here I raise my ‘Ebenezer,’ hither by your help I’ve come.” From Egypt to Calvary, from Mizpah to Ephesus, you have delivered your people from danger and death, from difficulty and disaster. No obstacle was large enough to resist your might. No foe was creative or resourceful enough to work around your wisdom. No frail heart was so fearful it would resist your comforting grace. Neither army nor angel, neither enemy nor environment has succeeded in destroying your people, for you have intervened, for you have stepped in to rescue us. Over hundreds of years, you strengthened faith, purified hearts, encouraged risk, and built integrity by your marvelous, glorious, and timely rescues. Nothing has been too difficult, from granting barren women children to raising the dead. Today, as I celebrate all you have done, I am confident, more than ever, that you will prove yourself holy, that you have infinite, unexcelled, and irreplaceable worth. I am confident that you will be merciful and gracious. I am confident you will eagerly help me, that you will enthusiastically assist me as I call on you in times of trouble. When you rescue me, I will honor you appropriately. Because of your ability to help the hopeless and to judge the wicked, I will not fear what the godless fear. You shall be my fear, and you shall be my dread; so I shall take refuge in you through the cross, and find sanctuary in Christ’s gracious, hopeful fellowship. Amen.