Watch Focus - FEAR NO EVIL
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil…” Psalm 23:4
The Hebrew can be read, “Though I live in a narrow gorge of deep darkness, distress, and extreme danger, there is nothing to fear or be terrified of, because You (Lord) are!”
Human rights activist Natan Sharansky spent 9 years interrogated and tortured in the harshest Russian Gulag prisons. A year and a half in a “punishment cell”—a small, unheated, uncooled cubicle with no light, accused of “high treason” against the Soviet regime. The line from a tiny book of Psalms, written in Hebrew, given him by his wife, confiscated and for which he struggled for 3 years in prison to regain possession of, gave him strength, purpose, and identity connecting him, beyond prison and torture, to a people, to a land, and to a book—the Bible. He said those who offered him the most strength during those years were imprisoned Pentecostal Christians who, because of Christ, knew who they were.
This week a sudden flurry around a Russian nuclear threat, shootings at a megachurch and a major sports event, the shredding of our due process rights under the law in New York, unimpeded inflation, devaluing dollar, the high cost of living, grooming of our children to gender confusion by educators, widespread public pro-terrorist antisemitism, widening global attempt to undermine the dollar as the world’s trade base, America’s involvement directly or by proxy on multiple warfronts, migrant invasion by foreign enemies via our border policy, and an administration in decline and disarray are just samples of a myriad of dangers we face!
We focus our watch prayer this week on covering for our nation from the many threats within and without.
“Because You, Lord, Are!”
Pray for a fresh and powerful outpouring of the FEAR of the LORD in the Presence of the Lord across this nation.
“So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” Isaiah 59:19.
RESCUE! “As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.” Zech. 9:11. Give thanks for the IDF's successful operation to rescue hostages Fernando Simon Marman and Louis Har in Rafah. We note that this came directly after Argentinian President Javier Milei met with Netanyahu and prayed at the Western Wall.
For America and for Israel:
Psalm 25
1 To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
2 O my God, I trust in You;
Let me not be ashamed; Let not my enemies triumph over me.
3 Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed;
Let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause.
4 Show me Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths.
5 Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation;
On You I wait all the day.
6 Remember, O Lord, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindnesses,
For they are from of old.
7 Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions;
According to Your mercy remember me, For Your goodness’ sake, O Lord.
8 Good and upright is the Lord;
Therefore He teaches sinners in the way.
9 The humble He guides in justice,
And the humble He teaches His way.
10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth,
To such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.
11 For Your name’s sake, O Lord,
Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
12 Who is the man that fears the Lord?
Him shall He teach in the way He chooses.
13 He himself shall dwell in prosperity,
And his descendants shall inherit the earth.
14 The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him,
And He will show them His covenant.
15 My eyes are ever toward the Lord,
For He shall pluck my feet out of the net.
16 Turn Yourself to me, and have mercy on me,
For I am desolate and afflicted.
17 The troubles of my heart have enlarged;
Bring me out of my distresses!
18 Look on my affliction and my pain,
And forgive all my sins.
19 Consider my enemies, for they are many;
And they hate me with cruel hatred.
20 Keep my soul, and deliver me;
Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You.
21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me,
For I wait for You.
22 Redeem Israel, O God,
Out of all their troubles!
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