Ao Senhor elevo

To the Lord I raise.

One of my favorite hymns is “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” While I’m sure I had heard it before, my favorite memory of the song is from a zone conference while I was on my mission. A group of four elders sang it a capella as part of the meeting. They had translated it into Portuguese as well and sang it through in both languages. The simplicity of it was beautiful.

Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
mount of thy redeeming love.

Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I’m come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.

Here I raise mine Eben-ezer.

Ebenezer is not just a character in a Dickens’ novel. Eben-ezer is a memorial stone the House of Israel raised to commemorate the help they had received from the Lord in their battles.

While the battles I have fought have not been ones of armies, we all have our battles in life. I hope the life I live can be raised in memorial to the help I have received from the Lord.

But Ammon said unto him: I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God.
Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.
Alma 26:11-12