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At the end of the Year - a Reminder of our Faithful God

Here we are...December 30th and we're close to the end of 2015. As we get to the end, I ran across this reading from Charles Spurgeon that a friend – Doug Bond - had posted on facebook.

 What I realize is that Spurgeon says so well what I want to remember about God's faithfulness both at the end of the year, as well as in the years to come.  

The verse he shares from comes from 1 Samuel 7:12 
12  Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Jeshanah, and named it Ebenezer; for he said, "Thus far the LORD has helped us."
It's not long, and even though it's in older English, you'll get the point...and when he says "hitherto", he's saying, "To this point in time".

The Title of His Message:  "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." - 1 Samuel 7:12

The word "hitherto" seems like a hand pointing in the direction of the past. Twenty years or seventy, and yet, "hitherto the Lord hath helped!" Through poverty, through wealth, through sickness, through health, at home, abroad, on the land, on the sea, in honour, in dishonour, in perplexity, in joy, in trial, in triumph, in prayer, in temptation, "hitherto hath the Lord helped us!"
We delight to look down a long avenue of trees. It is delightful to gaze from end to end of the long vista, a sort of verdant temple, with its branching pillars and its arches of leaves; even so look down the long aisles of your years, at the green boughs of mercy overhead, and the strong pillars of lovingkindness and faithfulness which bear up your joys. Are there no birds in yonder branches singing? Surely there must be many, and they all sing of mercy received "hitherto."
But the word also points forward. For when a man gets up to a certain mark and writes "hitherto," he is not yet at the end, there is still a distance to be traversed. More trials, more joys; more temptations, more triumphs; more prayers, more answers; more toils, more strength; more fights, more victories; and then come sickness, old age, disease, death. Is it over now? No! there is more yet-awakening in Jesus' likeness, thrones, harps, songs, psalms, white raiment, the face of Jesus, the society of saints, the glory of God, the fulness of eternity, the infinity of bliss. O be of good courage, believer, and with grateful confidence raise thy "Ebenezer," (my note: an Ebenezer was a reference to a stone of help), for—
He who hath helped thee hitherto
Will help thee all thy journey through.
When read in heaven's light how glorious and marvellous a prospect will thy "hitherto" unfold to thy grateful eye!

Peace to you my friends, and let's live with a sense of God's Faithfulness to our lives

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