There they were, overwhelmed with dread, where there was nothing to dread. Psalm 53:5

Does the above verse describe you? You don't have to go far to here dire economic forecasts these days. The way out is not at all clear, and smoldering fear gets quickly fanned into flame. Anxiety takes root and grows, and our ability to trust in God gets choked.

God saw Isaiah going down a  path of despair, and warned him...

The Lord spoke to me with his strong hand on me, warning me not to follow the way of this people. He said:

"Do not call conspiracy everything that these people call conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread, and he will be a sanctuary..." Isaiah 8:11-14

So, as we come to a new year, don't take your cue from the main stream media, from newpapers, or blogs. Be in God's word, hear from him. Let him be your sanctuary, your place of refuge. The hymnwriter put it wonderfully....

Be still, my soul:
thy God doth undertake
To guide the future,
as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence
let nothing shake;
All now mysterious
shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul:
the waves and winds
still know His voice
Who ruled them
while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul:
the hour is hastening on
When we shall be
forever with the Lord.
When disappointment,
grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot,
love's purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul:
when change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed
we shall meet at last.

Be still, my soul:
begin the song of praise
On earth, believing,
to thy Lord on high;
Acknowledge Him
in all thy works and ways,
So shall He view
thee with a well-pleased eye.
Be still, my soul:
the Sun of life divine
Through passing clouds
shall but more brightly shine.

Words: Katharina A. von Schlegel
Music: Jean Sibelius
 

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. Psalm 107:8-9

"Thanksgiving is the exercise of our memory in the presence of the source of all blessings." Samuel Zwemer

John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim’s Progress, wrote an account of the grace of God that brought him to faith, and in the foreword penned these words……

”My dear children, call to mind the former days, and the years of ancient times: remember also your songs in the night; and commune with your own heart ( Ps. 77.5-12)."

"Look diligently, and leave no corner unsearched, for there is a treasure hid, even the treasure of your first and second experience of the grace of God toward you."

"Remember, I say, the word that first laid hold upon you; remember your terrors of conscience, and fear of death and hell; remember also your tears and prayers to God; yea, how you sighed under every hedge for mercy."

"Have you never a hill Mizar to remember?"

My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.  Psalm 42:6
 
"Have you forgot the close, the milk house, the stable, the barn, and the like, where God did visit your soul?"

"Remember also the Word - the Word, I say, upon which the Lord hath caused you to hope. If you have sinned against light; if you are tempted to blaspheme; if you are down in despair; if you think God fights against you; or if heaven is hid from your eyes, remember it was thus with your father, but out of them all the Lord delivered me."

Here I raise mine Ebenezer...
(a reference to a memorial that commemorating the way God has stepped in - rescuing and saving)
Hither by Thy help I'm come...
(everything that has happened up to now is because the the goodness and mercy and kindness of God)
And I hope by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home...
(He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6)
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wan'dring from he fold of God
He to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood
(God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of god. 2 Corinthians 5:21)

COME THOU FOUNT
Robert Robinson