He Deserves Your Thanks

 Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness.

    Let the whole world know what he has done.
² Sing to him; yes, sing his praises.
    Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds.
³ Exult in his holy name;
    rejoice, you who worship the Lord.
⁴ Search for the Lord and for his strength;
    continually seek him.

⁵ Remember the wonders he has performed,
    his miracles, and the rulings he has given,
⁶ you children of his servant Abraham,
    you descendants of Jacob, his chosen ones.

⁷ He is the Lord our God.
    His justice is seen throughout the land.
⁸ He always stands by his covenant—
    the commitment he made to a thousand generations.

⁹ This is the covenant he made with Abraham
    and the oath he swore to Isaac.
¹⁰ He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree,
    and to the people of Israel as a never-ending covenant:
¹¹ “I will give you the land of Canaan
    as your special possession.”

¹² He said this when they were few in number,
    a tiny group of strangers in Canaan.

¹³ They wandered from nation to nation,
    from one kingdom to another.
¹⁴ Yet he did not let anyone oppress them.
    He warned kings on their behalf:
¹⁵ “Do not touch my chosen people,
    and do not hurt my prophets.”

¹⁶ He called for a famine on the land of Canaan,
    cutting off its food supply.

¹⁷ Then he sent someone to Egypt ahead of them—
    Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
¹⁸ They bruised his feet with fetters
    and placed his neck in an iron collar.
¹⁹ Until the time came to fulfill his dreams,^[a]
    the Lord tested Joseph’s character.
²⁰ Then Pharaoh sent for him and set him free;
    the ruler of the nation opened his prison door.

Do Not Fear

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Fear incapacitates, immobilizes, stagnates and brings about loss of vision and direction. Fear is a tool that the enemy enjoys using against believers to truncate the plans and purposes of God in their lives. A number of Biblical examples include:

The use of fear against the army of Israel by Goliath is an interesting case study. Through Goliath’s intimidating stature and boastful words, the devil succeeded in instilling fear in the hearts of the soldiers of Israel. A well equipped and well prepared army of hundreds of thousands able men who left their homes to fight the Philistine army cowered in fright because Goliath, a giant boasted of his might. What a shame especially when a mere youth who had never served in the army brought Goliath down. So it was not necessarily Goliath’s stature that incapacitated and immobilized the army of Israel. It was the fear he spewed out through his intimidating words. Please see 1^st Samuel Chapter 17.

Fear was also the reason Lot took a decision to go live in a cave in the mountains instead of Zoar where he escaped to safety from Sodom and Gomorrah. Living in a cave alone with two grown up daughters led to the incestuous union that produced Moab and Ammon. Fear births wrong decisions.

The Israelites at a time in their history threshed wheat in winepresses because they were afraid of the Midianites whose pastime was to destroy the livelihoods of the Israelites in order to impoverish them. God empowered Gideon with great faith to overcome fear and destroy the Midianites. Please see Judges Chapter 6.