“Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”
In life, people are used to appreciating others only after something good has been done to them, and they can physically see and touch it. For instance, you supply food or buy clothes for someone. It is uncommon for someone to say thanks without anything attached. People do thanksgiving and celebration only when they have a newborn baby or get married or delivered from a long illness etc. It’s very rare even for a believer to worship and thank God in their pain publicly.
God has been with us for the past 21 days. Some of you have been on zoom daily for prayers, some even out of the country, waking up between 3-4 am to join the zoom.
I know that God has visited us for our prayers and it cannot be in vain. I know that we will begin to testify about his goodness. We have no strength of our own to have gone through these 21 days and we can boldly say like Samual, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”
Exodus 15:20-21 “20 Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her, with timbrels and dancing. 21 Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea.”
Miriam took the timbrel and the other women joined in after the miraculous victory over the Red Sea and they danced and praised God. I know that some would be wondering why we are worshipping and thanking God when we have not seen anything. To be honest, on a personal note, I know that it has been only God over these 21 days. In addition, thanking God is putting our faith to work. We know what we are believing God for.
Job 1:20-21 “20At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.”
In Job 1:20-21, Job worshipped God even from the valley of the shadow of death. God delivered him from the valley and placed a table before him in the presence of his enemies, anointed him, and blessed his later life. Psalm 23:4-5 “4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me 5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointed my head with oil; my cup runneth over.”
One can only imagine what the people in his community were thinking.
Psalm 95:1-6 “1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!”
We are thanking, praising and worshiping God for our salvation, for his greatness, goodness, love, faithfulness, forgiveness, creation etc.
Ezra 3:11 “And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.” And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.”
Ezra and his community gathered and worshipped, praised, and thanked God for rebuilding the altar and the temple of the Lord. For the past 21 days, I believe we have rededicated, consecrated, and rebuilt our altars. As we go into 2025, our spiritual lives can never be the same again.
Psalm 75:1: "We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks, for your name is near. We recount your wondrous deeds.
We are thankful because we know that for real, our God is with us. When we give God thanks, it shows him how much we appreciate and honor him.
Psalm 50:23 "The one who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving is the one who honors me. And it is to the one who charts the correct path that I will show divine salvation."
Daily, we can truly say that God has been, still is, and will continue to be our strength, shield, and our helper.
Psalm 28:7 “The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.”
Therefore, we will continue to praise him so long as we live.
Hebrew 13:15 “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”
We thank God for his faithfulness and all the wonderful things he has done in our lives.
Isaiah 25:1 “O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.”
Psalm 107:8-9: "Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things."
We are grateful for the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding he has bestowed upon us even during these 21 days. These are the tools we will embrace and apply to our daily lives in 2025 if we want to be successful.
Daniel 2:23 “To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of you, for you have made known to us the king's matter.”
Psalm 138:1-2: "I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise; I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word."
Personally, I want to thank God for each one of you who keeps believing in what we are doing here, and has committed themselves to these 21 days of fasting/ prayers. Even if you were not fasting but joined the prayers, God will still remember you, as I declare Philippians 1:3-11 over you in Jesus’ mighty name.
Philippians 1:3-11 “3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.”