We Are Who We Are Despite Our Economic Climate

For a while now, my Country’s economy has been greatly challenged. It is therefore not strange to find people, including believers, going through great difficulty all around us. There are also people around us, including believers, whose lives have greatly improved in this time. Unfortunately, some such people have made this remarkable progress by inflicting pain on our ‘neighbors’ and misusing them. People toil whilst some others are greatly enriched by their toiling; hardly doing anything themselves. These beneficiaries, some of whom are believers, enjoy the benefits of other people’s labor and owe them wages forever or refuse to give them appropriate remuneration whilst they live the lives others can only dream off or even better than they themselves ever dreamt of. These believers live lavish lives built on injustice and argue that they do their staff great favor hiring them though they pay next to nothing and use them for unreasonably long hours because the economic climate has adversely impacted on employment rate making it really difficult to get jobs. We forget that God already stated in His word how we ought to deal with staff and also that this is our opportunity to shine as light in darkness. How is it okay for us to do such injustice and claim to be “friends and children of a just and righteous God?”

Jeremiah 22: 13amp “woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his (upper) chambers by injustice, who uses his neighbor’s service without wages and does not give him his pay (for his work)”

This economic climate is beginning to separate between believers and believers. It is revealing the hearts of a number of us and showing us the extent of our love for and trust (faith) in God. So how much do you love and trust Him? We claim to trust Him but really have no faith in Him. We have, like Esau, sold our birthright for pottage because we could not just eat anything other than what we want to eat at the time we want to eat it. Like Esau, we “want what we want when we want it” so unwittingly, we have given up our inheritance. Remember that satan seeks opportunities like this to ruin us but for God’s grace and mercy. As the devil works passionately at this time seeking whom he may destroy, we have to insist on remaining who we are – Christ disciples. We can’t afford to sell our inheritance. Interestingly, as it was with Esau, one may not immediately realize the consequences of their decision or decisions until a day when they may need to make a demand on God’s word and find that they since lost the right to make that demand because of such wrong decisions made in the heat of passion and it may be too late to alter the consequence(s) of the initial decision like it was with Esau.

Genesis 25: 30 – 32 “Esau said to Jacob, ‘I am starved! Give me some of that red stew! … all right Jacob replied, ‘but trade me your rights as the firstborn son’ … ‘First you must swear that your birthright is mine.’ So Esau swore an oath, thereby selling all his rights as the firstborn to his brother, Jacob.”

Believers have been known to suffer untold loss for lack of faith; we must not submit to the loser’s life because of our current economic climate which will change. We can’t afford to, by our actions, unwittingly reject help from God which is the trap a number of us are falling into because we think we know how best to manage the situation. For some of us, our ideas seem great because it always seems like we are about to breakthrough but just when we think the break through is here something happens that moves it further and we find ourselves continuously toiling and never able to break through to our desired goal. Meanwhile, Jesus is always waiting to be called into the situation but we very often don’t think to call Him because we are misled by satan into thinking we are just about to break through on our own. Some also, having struggled so hard for an extended period, get worn out and tired and eventually give up feeling so defeated that we don’t want to try again even when we hear God telling us to do so. Oh! If we had only sought His help much earlier. We just have to tell ourselves especially at times like this that we know nothing of ourselves anymore. We have to make ourselves need His counsel so that we will seek it. We have to trust Him enough to believe in and apply His counsel despite what we know.

Proverbs 3: 5 – 7 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom.”

1 Timothy 1: 17 “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Indeed, the circumstance our nation finds itself in is not new. It happened before and has even happened to other nations. Nations that were in very terrible economic situations have been known to recover and I look forward to our own Country’s recovery so my questions is this – what state will you be in when our Country recovers? Anyone can argue that they feel compelled to act the way they do because of our economic realities – as my people say “man must survive” but at what cost? It is time to ask ourselves the real questions and also make these topics the subjects of our discussions as we gather. We can’t afford to be become degenerates because our economy has challenges. We must remember who we are despite all that is going on with our economy. We are believers in Christ who live in and by the Holy Spirit who also is a great counsellor as well as helper. We must honestly and continuously assess ourselves so we continue on course.

Why Me? The Popular Cry That Often Has No Answer

In recent months I have heard so many say “why me?” and “what did I do wrong?” to last a life time and I wonder why? Could it be that satan is busier than ever before or that we live our lives so carelessly that we forget there are consequences for every decision we make? I guess it is both and several other things but there seems to be too much pain everywhere. Now more than ever before, there is a great need for true hope, which is only found in Jesu Christ. We all need to have reasons for living through some of the difficulties we face as we go through life. Tough as they may sometimes be, as believers, we must succeed which translates to - we must ride it patiently waiting for the end which will surely come. No wonder when Paul cried out to God concerning some of his own challenge and/or difficulty in life, my interpretation of God’s answer to him is this – “you can cope with it because I have poured into you, all the strength you need to go through”. That does not in any way suggest that God initiated it nor does it say it will end and if it will, when. How comforting is that?

 

2 Corinthians 12: 8 - 9 “Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness. So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.”

Life does throw us “curve balls” as we all know. Moreover, how would satan show that he is the prince of the power of the air who is supposedly in charge on earth, something he stole from Adam and Eve. So things do happen sometimes that are not initiated by God and are also not consequences of any wrongdoing but  God allows them for reasons we may not be aware of like it was with Job. The one thing that is certain though, is that God knows how to make the challenges we face work good for us if we don’t quit. God is always working to make a testimony of every such situation so that at the end of the day even satan is left a little confused wondering how we came out of it with a testimony just like it happened with Jesus Christ. Thankfully, it does not matter how bad or painful it may seem, it is never too bad for God to work a testimony out of it as long as we don’t give in to satan and quit. To give in to satan includes having pity parties and really enjoy them or becoming more selfish/self-centered. Satan knows what all of these can do to our relationship with God; he knows they separate believers from God setting them on a downward spiral which is what he always hoped would happen.

1 Corinthians 2: 7 – 8 “No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God-his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began. But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord.”

Mark 6: 48a “He saw that they were in serious trouble, rowing hard and struggling against eh wind and waves… Jesus cam toward them, walking on the water. He intended to go past them, but when they saw him walking on the water, they cried out…”

This story of Christ and His disciples often comes to mind when I hear any of the “recently popular cries” like “why me?” I can only imagine how it would have felt as these disciples traveled across the lake and found themselves toiling in rowing. This must have been a journey they had done several times before they knew Jesus and it always went well otherwise they wouldn’t have done it, but this one time everything seemed to be going wrong notwithstanding that they had come to know Jesus Christ. What makes it even more intriguing is that Jesus was going by and had seen them but would have gone past them if they had not called out to Him. He not only did nothing upon seeing them toiling, but was about to go past them without solving their problem. Thank God they called out and got help just like they needed in this instance. Sometimes, though help comes, it doesn't always come in the way we need it to at the time. In Job’s case as well as several others in the bible, help did not come in the way it was needed and that is when it gets really tough. We must realize that God will do what He will do and in the best way ever because He sees the end and His purpose is always to work the best for us.

1 Peter 5: 10 “In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation.”

One thing is certain, no matter the cause of the difficulties, it is always for "a moment" and will eventually pass. God does not enjoy seeing us suffer, that is satan’s job. God is always working good out of it all if we can just be patient and the only way to be patient is making Him our focus. I cannot promise that it won’t leave marks because it left marks on some others like Paul and even Job as well as several others even today. Paul actually speaks of bearing the marks for Christ on his body; and with Job, no matter how beautiful his new set of children were, how could he possibly forget that he had some other children many years ago and was starting life all over again? Despite all the pain, it is but for a moment and works character as well as several other benefits in and for us. Instead of moaning and asking the very familiar questions, we need to switch it up and begin to enjoy Jesus Christ despite our circumstance. If we stay in the word of God, we will find that we have abundant joy flowing from within notwithstanding all that may be going on around us. You can choose what you would rather do and if we make the right choice, heaven backs us with grace. Let us disappoint our enemy in every situation.

Praying Believer Or ‘Prayer Contractor’

Prayer contractor is a term we use locally to describe people who ‘pray’ with or without a burden but certainly with a personal agenda. Their personal gain is always the reason they call out to God and the more it profits them, especially financially, the more willing they are to keep ‘praying’ and this, notwithstanding whether or not such persons are born again believers. Sometimes the god they call out to in their ‘prayer time’ is not the God we know and accept into our lives. Much as we ought to love prayer because it is spending time with God and no believer will successfully go through their journey on earth without a solid prayer life, I realize that our God’s desire more than anything else is for us to be like Him. All the prayer is meant to help us be like Him and live successfully on earth in His image. I would love to have a wonderful prayer life as we all should, because true communion with God gives God pleasure and makes us behold Him so that as we behold His glory we are then conformed to His image. It is sad however to observe that though we seem to pray a lot around where I live, we are not becoming more like Him. We pray so much yet we are some of the most wicked, lawless, selfish and self-centered, undisciplined people. We resist transformation and remain unchanging meanwhile only God should be unchanging. Indeed, the more we pray, the worse we seem to get; there must really be a problem. Could it be that we ourselves have, unknown, to us become ‘prayer contractors ’instead of praying believers?

 

Luke 18: 1 “One day, Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray.”

Ephesians 6: 18 “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion.”

Most people pray, and as we should. It is God’s desire that we pray always. So prayer is good but best from the ‘right life’. Indeed, prayer by itself does nothing except it moves God what needs to be done if our prayer is a request. I have found that a lot of people who worship gods that have ears and can’t hear, mouth and can’t speak and also can’t see, pray much harder than we who claim to worship The Most High God. Like the prophets of bale in the time of Elijah who prayed so hard they cut themselves so badly until they bled and yet elicited no response from their god, many unbelievers pray really hard. The sad thing though is that a lot of us are building our understanding of prayer on what these unbelievers do as they pray to a god who cannot speak or hear or even see though we lie to ourselves that we are talking to The Most High God. Unless our prayer is one of sincere repentance, we cannot live in sin and claim to pray to the Most High God who already says that the sinner’s prayer is an abomination to Him. The fact that one claims to be born again and prays always will not change that. The confession that one is a born again believer by itself makes no difference to God who says He will save anyone who sincerely calls on His name. The point is our lives must line up with the confession of lips for our prayer to be meaningful.

Acts of the Apostles 10: 35 “In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right.”

Proverbs 15: 8 “The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but he delights in the prayers of the upright.”

It would appear that God is not looking to having people commune with Him because of a name they call themselves but because of what they do which is tied to their fear of Him.  A prayer less believer is almost useless because He doesn’t commune with His God and as such may be unable to consistently receive instructions from Him but what is worse is to pretend like one is communing with God when they are not. Any believer who remains carnal, or lacking in joy or always complaining or continuously remains backslidden and such like, and yet seems to pray a lot, is not really praying. No one who enters that presence remains the same. If anyone who prays consistently finds that they are not becoming more like God or they still are always sad and so on, then it is most likely time for self-examination. No one needs to tell you. God is hungry for communion with believers and not just anyone. This does not suggest that true believers don’t do wrong but they do not continue in wrong doing. They repent, ask for mercy and then turn away from the wrongdoing.  A lot of prayer and even shaking of the head whilst ‘praying’ don’t do anything for us except and until God moves. The points we must always bear in mind are – did I enter His manifest presence and did all my communing impact God? If we enter into His very presence, then we would definitely be conformed to His image because the change cannot be controlled if one beholds His glory. Also, if we truly commune with God as we would like people to believe we do then we would also have better understanding of the scriptures and receive grace to become children of God. The grace we receive is the empowering to do according to His word that is revealed.

Deuteronomy 29: 29 “The Lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.”