It is important for us to consider how prayer is used in times of difficulty, and we see it strikingly set forth in the case of Samuel. He is himself the gift of prayer, as his name declares (heard of God), and in his service toward Israel he uses prayer above any of his predecessors. In fact, he introduces and proves to us the power of prayer.
In 1 Samuel 7 we find an instance of deliverance and succor accorded in answer to prayer, and the spirit of true dependence in a moment of greatest difficulty. “Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel; and the Lord heard him. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering [Christ, the ground of our acceptance] the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel: but the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were smitten before Israel. ... Then Samuel took a stone, and set it up between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us” (1 Sam. 7:9-129And Samuel took a sucking lamb, and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the Lord: and Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel; and the Lord heard him. 10And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel: but the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were smitten before Israel. 11And the men of Israel went out of Mizpeh, and pursued the Philistines, and smote them, until they came under Beth-car. 12Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. (1 Samuel 7:9‑12)).
When we have received mercy of the Lord, it is most important that we should own it. We may pray and receive, but the moment which perpetuates the mercy is not the mercy itself, but the Ebenezer — the acknowledgment of the heart, of how God has helped and succored us. The mercy conferred was great — a day ever to be remembered by Israel — but it is not the thing done, or even the marvelous way in which the thing was done, that is the monument of it; it is the testimony of the heart to the unfailing help of God — the Ebenezer: “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” I know and own Him as my helper hitherto; the mercy may remain or it may pass away; the Ebenezer ever remains. Here Samuel sets up a stone, as a solid and permanent monument to the Lord’s deliverance. I have not only received, but I know the One from whom I have received. I have a fixed judgment about Him and my heart records it. This is the real strength of the heart. It is distinct and positive to me that it is His hand that has wrought.
Dependence and Confidence
I believe that souls lose immensely by not being able to record more distinctly that hitherto He has helped them. It is the experimental knowledge of God which is acquired by true dependence on Him. When we have true confidence in Him because of what He is and what He has been to us, we are enabled to go forward in spite of all difficulties, and then we have no self-confidence. Our tendency is to not have full confidence in Him, and though we have prayed, we perhaps have few Ebenezers — few monuments — fixed judgments in our hearts of the power and succor of Christ—and then we seek for confidence in ourselves, which easy circumstances tend to feed. One prays largely and fully in proportion as one has confidence in God, and if I really know Him as my helper, if I have a sure Ebenezer, I can easily and simply look to Him. The great principle of prayer is that I know the One whom I am addressing, and I am reckoning on His help.
Philadelphia
In the church of Philadelphia (Rev. 3) there is both the sense of the need of help and the knowledge of the gain of it, whereas the state in Laodicea is a “need of nothing”—no sense of the use of help, for there is no sense of needing it. We ought to regard prayer as the prelude to blessing, and thus be able to raise our Ebenezers. I know what God is and how He has helped me hitherto, and I am expecting and reckoning on His help. We have not merely to own our weakness and need (that is the first thing), but we have to expect help and succor.
Prayer is a mighty engine through which the resources of God are made available to us. It is as the needy one, not as the self-satisfied and self-confident one, that I avail myself of it. As I exercise my heart in my Ebenezers as touching what He has been to me, the more am I encouraged to go on in faith and to “continue in prayer with thanksgiving.”
Christian Truth, Vol. 2 (adapted)