My Ebenezer, My Ever Present Help
April 5, 2023
Do you recall a post I wrote last year in which I talked about “My Ebenezer”? Anyway, let me extract part of it
https://www.communityofbrokenspirit.org/blog/taking-stock-of-the-year-of-the-supernatural
Several weeks after the post, while driving down the ramp of the car park to my home, V asked me “Do you see it?”
It’s the Ebenezer! Similar to the one that Florence had shown me. I also recall a similar picture in a Chinese worship song, “He is Ebenezer” during one of our Monday morning worship meetings. I went to look it up, it was on Jan 9, 2023.
Here it is:
Does it not look similar to the shape of the layout plan at my home? I think so too. This lighted signage was commissioned by my husband a few years ago for our estate. I have been driving in and out of the car park every day and I did not even notice it.
Now, a closer look. There are crosses inside – 8 of them, each cross consisting of 4 houses joined like a windmill. And the red line, V says, is the blood of Jesus, the lifeline that runs through the estate. And to top it off, I spotted the little rainbow on the yellow strip too, plus the many “V”s pointing the direction to my house! What a thrilling discovery.
Hahaha. How would I have fathomed that 11 years ago, when I obeyed the Lord to buy this property, albeit with some resistance, that it was all in His great big plan to establish His Ever Presence here, in my home, His blood covering our coming and going, for such a time…?
My Thinker and Time Planner
And especially so now, I feel blessedly assured of His protection and help, amidst the extreme stress I am dealing with and in anticipation of the dreadful war that is due to come.
It has been a crazy first quarter of the year as I furiously tried to get all my “work” out of the way - website posts and refresh, teaching videos, podcasts for the year, evaluating and repositioning investments, planning trips etc. The plan was to free myself to enjoy some solitude and quiet with the Lord in April while my husband goes about his business engagements in Europe. And after that, I can work on being prepared and energised for the coming threat of war in 2024.
Like clockwork, the devil wasted no time to get me swarmed by an avalanche of needs and challenges one after another – my brother very ill in hospital, COBS members, family and friends in crisis and conflict, hiccups in the beach house renovations, an exasperating helper at home and so on. And worst of all, I caught the flu from my grandkids which incredibly lasted more than a month, making me so very tired, while worried for them at the same time. I hit close to rock bottom and started to be quick tempered. I don’t like myself at all. I felt despondent, how am I going to cope?
To top it off, my husband suddenly developed some health issues, followed by acute pain, first on one foot, and then the other which made it excruciating for him to stand or walk, and he has to undergo some very painful therapy, hoping to accelerate his recovery.
I asked the Lord – are these your enemy’s mischief to scuttle my planned solitude with You in Milan? If so, I will pray and persevere, and do everything to still go. My husband also feels that he needs to visit his business associates after 3 years of Covid disruption. But I felt no peace about going. I could not bring myself to start packing for the trip.
And my Ebenezer did something. The hotel in Milan suddenly cancelled our booking, which was supposed to have been paid last October. It turned out they have not even charged me for it when this is the super peak season in Milan. I took this as my sign to cancel the trip.
My husband was still a bit hesitant and wanted to get his specialist doctor’s advice if he would recover sufficiently enough in a week to be able to travel. But I have made up my mind and I prayed that he will also see clearly that God wants us to stay put and not go. We need to start to cancel airline and hotel bookings right away if we are not going; it would be tedious and costly.
On the way to see his doctor this morning, we got our confirmation. At the traffic light junction, I caught sight of my “Ebenezer” – on the truck in front belonging to Ebenezer Logistics.
Yup. Confirmed.
When I returned home and started to clear my mails, I saw a leaflet from a property agent which I usually do not even bother to read. But somehow, I turned it over and then I saw it again – my Ebenezer!
Two confirmations in one day! Thank you Lord for your reassurance. I proceeded to cancel all our hotel and airline bookings which have been fully paid. With the medical certificate and the favour of God, all of them kindly waived cancellation charges and gave us a full refund.
I updated my to-do list and felt an instant relief. Once again, I had not realised that my plate was overflowing and the workload was way too much for me to handle. With this schedule change, everything became more manageable. I rescheduled a retreat to the beach house in the month of May, together with COBS members. Which means, all renovations will be completed without further nasty surprises, because my Divine Helper is going to take care of that.
Update May 22, 2023:
Everything could not be better executed. I met who I needed to meet, fixed what I needed to fix, did all I needed to do, and everything fell into pleasant boundaries in the weeks that I was supposed to be in Europe.
All the posts for the year are done and handed over to the website team. All these challenges probably have something to do with this last part of the series of “Bringing Up Sara”, as God talks to me about His Church and the truth about tithing. They will be released in batches sometime in September. The timing will be perfect, as God has planned.
And last week, the final repair works on the beach house in Batam, Indonesia, which God said is a place of rest and refuge, was done. Ten of us are heading there to enjoy our time of rest in a few days. And, boy, do we all need it!
Thank you Lord, our Ebenezer, our ever-present Help in times of trouble, the Rock of our salvation. Because of you, we can rest, knowing that You are watching over us and we can choose to be rapturously happy in all things. Hallelujah!
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