Maybe there are some things that, again, we want to bring with us from the last year and carry them forward into this new year. So what does this word hitherto mean? 

And again, it’s an interesting point because it literally means up to this point or thus far until now. So we’re going to look at hitherto looking back. We’re going to look at hitherto trusting now and hitherto for the hope ahead.

In Streams of the Desert, and it talked about hitherto being a word like an avenue. You know when you go to some places, you see the line of trees down a street, and you just see these trees going on and on and on, and then you can get so far as you’re walking down, and you look back, and you just see as many line of trees behind you as you do ahead of you. And that’s basically what hitherto means, because Samuel didn’t say, We’ve arrived. He didn’t say after the victory against the philistines We did it. We got it. We’ve arrived. He just said we have been Helped so at the beginning of this new year hitherto. I want us to look forward and also To look back to remember how the lord has helped us in the past year for some of us the past year is something that we are so glad to be over I’m glad that’s done. I’m glad. I don’t want to ever go through 2025 again. That’s done. So let’s move forward.

For some, we might look back at 2025 and think, oh, I’m glad this happened. I’m glad that happened. I want to make sure that more of this takes place in the year ahead. So we can look back and remember what God has done. How he helped us in some of those rough times. And then we can also look forward to see what the Lord is going to do for us in the year ahead. So at the beginning of the new year, we’re going to look forward, and we’re going look back, remember who carried us, remember who sustained us, and remember who preserved us, and persevered with us, and helped us, and guided us, and was there in the times when we felt like our world was literally falling apart.

So we read 1 Samuel chapter 7 and our text verse, the verse, we’re going to look at all of the verses that we read today, but the verse we’re going to focus on towards the end is verse 12. Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.