Thursday, 9th March, 2023
Bible Reading: 1 Samuel 2:8
Memory Verse: He lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the garbage dump. Psalm 113:7 (NLT)
Discuss 1: Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in or around 1818 in Talbot County, Maryland. His mother was an enslaved Black woman and his father was white and of European descent. He was actually born Frederick Bailey (his mother’s name), and took the name Douglass only after he escaped. After he was separated from his mother as an infant, Douglass lived for a time with his maternal grandmother, Betty Bailey. However, at the age of six, he was moved away from her to live and work on the Wye House plantation in Maryland.
Lesson 1: A bad start in life should not condemn your entire life to a series of pain. Like Frederick, you don’t choose where you are born, but you can choose where and how you end. It’s all about maximizing God’s grace, vision, and resilience. Nothing can stop you without your approval.
Discuss 2: From there, Douglass was “given” to Lucretia Auld, whose husband, Thomas, sent him to work with his brother Hugh in Baltimore. Douglass credits Hugh’s wife Sophia with first teaching him the alphabet. From there, he taught himself to read and write. By the time he was hired out to work under William Freeland, he was teaching other enslaved people to read using the Bible. As word spread of his efforts to educate fellow enslaved people, Thomas Auld took him back and transferred him to Edward Covey, a farmer who was known for his brutal treatment of the enslaved people in his charge. Roughly 16 at this time, Douglass was regularly whipped by Covey. After several failed attempts at escape, Douglass finally left Covey’s farm in 1838.
Lesson 2: Knowledge is power. Do everything in your power to gain relevant knowledge. As much as possible, try to be educated. “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn” – AlvinToffler. In addition, the strength of an oppressor is the maintenance of his slave’s ignorance.
Quote: With God, nothing can stop you without your consent.
Prophetic Decree: Yourawful background shall not limit your glorious destiny, in Jesus name
Prayer Focus
1. Thank you Father for you are good and your mercies endures forever.
2. Way Maker, arise and show me a path out of obscurity into glory, in Jesus name.
3. I come against all powers of limitations in my root, in Jesus name.
4. O Lord, you are the lifter of my head, lift me up, in Jesus name.
5. My Father, show me an escape route out of subservient living, and penury lifestyle, in Jesus name.
6. Blood of Jesus, please break every curse of limitation and poverty in my root, in Jesus name.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Numbers 33-34