What Pharaoh said
(NASB) Exodus 1:10 “Come, let us deal wisely with them (sons of Israel), or they will multiply and in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land.”

Agendas and fears lead to added pressures.

What is bringing added pressure and fear into your life?

Pharaoh’s agenda
(NASB) Exodus 1:11 “So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor.  And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses.”

The sons of Israel could not control their circumstances.  Many times we cannot control our circumstances.

But we can control how we respond in our circumstances.

Pharaoh’s fears increased
(NASB) Exodus 1:12 “But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel.”

Pharaoh’s pressure intensified
(NASB) Exodus 1:13-14 “The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously;
14 and they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them.”

What is to be our response to such harsh conditions?  Our response is not to be naïve but realistic.  It is God Himself who gives His peace to all who trust in Him to work in their situation, even in impossibly hard circumstances.

Even when our emotions are not filled with peace or joy, what are the followers of Christ to do?

(NASB) Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!”

~ Take it to heart ~

I encourage you to commit this verse to memory… right now.  Think about obeying this verse.

It is God Himself on whom we are to rely, not our emotions or circumstances or other people.

As you walk through this day – “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!”