Gradually, we are moving closer to the end of the year. As the year rolls away,
in the name of Jesus, it will not roll away with our blessings. What is
expected of us at this time is not to stop praying but to begin to give thanks to
the Almighty God for expected blessings.
While we pray, it is really a time to sing praises to the Lord and thank him for
those incoming blessings.
Situations in life can make one to become desperate but the desperation hardly
ends on a joyful note. At the long run, it ends sorrowfully. Many a time, those
who take desperate steps never recover.
How do I mean? For instance, a man has been working hard but hardly makes
ends meet. It doesn’t matter if he is a Christian or not. The man has
borrowed until he becomes ashamed to borrow. Then he begins to say to
himself, why don’t I try something else since I have not received answers to my
prayers.
Such a man then begins to associate with those who tell him, he is wasting his
time trying to be like the Lord. Subsequently, he is introduced to drug
trafficking, Internet fraud or rituals for money. He is likely to come in contact
with men involved in any of these activities in a beer parlor where he believes
he has gone to ‘drink away his sorrow’.
Brethren, which of these three steps can give him a joyful end? None. Sooner
or later, the long arm of the law will catch up with him and he will end up in
jail.
Or we take the case of a married woman who says to herself, that she has
been married for over 10 years without children and her mother and mother in-
law keep putting pressure on her. She then decides to date any man in
trousers. She now becomes the one seducing men.
Where will she end? It is either she ends up with incurable sexually transmitted
diseases, or she get pregnant in the process and passes it to the innocent
husband who thinks prayers have been answered but one day, just one day, the
secret will be let out of the bag and what does she get, honour or disgrace?
Certainly disgrace.
Or is it the case of a single lady who concludes that since she hasn’t found a
man all these years, she decides to have a baby for any man.
Let me give you a real example of what I am saying. A man who has been
married without a child chose to find a young lady to give him a child. The
lady got pregnant and gave him a baby girl. Unknown to the man, the lady
engages in commercial sex.
Years later, the man travelled to America and the lady to Italy. They never got
married and the child was left with the paternal grandmother. After a while, the
man decided to take his daughter to the United States to reside with him. He
made all efforts to get the mother return from Italy but she never did.
So, grandmother and the girl approached the United States embassy. One of
the requirements for relocation was a DNA test. The results turned negative.
A secret was let out of the bag.
When contacted, the mother could not defend herself. The man was shocked
to his bones. He was angry and bitter. What he saw as a means of escape
from delay in child bearing has become a permanent source of sorrow.
A family meeting was called. The meeting produced no solution but the
grandmother insisted that she would keep the girl even as the son vowed not
to have anything to do with the girl.
This is a true-life story. Brethren, we’ll see that in this battle no one won. The
man lost, the lady lost, even the innocent child who was not responsible for the
circumstance of her birth is a loser.
This is the reason why at a time like this, we need to be careful. Never say to
yourself, “ I have been praying, if God won’t answer me, I will try something
else”. Once you begin to think like that, Satan has started working on you.
Nothing on earth should make you as Christian seek an alternative to Christ
because indeed there is no alternative. If you find an alternative it is the devil
with a capital D.
No wonder a respected man of God, the General Overseer of the Redeemed
Christian Church of God,Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye wrote in Open Heavens
that as Christians we need not pray defeatist prayer.
Pastor Adeboye defines it, “ A defeatist prayer is the kind of prayer made with
an expectation of imminent failure, assumption of hopelessness and a
resignation to fate”.
He made it clear that “Defeatist prayers carry a belief that God cannot
intervene in the situation at hand”.
This is misleading and completely false. God can intervene at any time.
Brethren, there is a clear difference between faith and fate. You are either
faithful to God or you resign yourself to fate. In which case, you have given up
on the intervention of God.
It is practically impossible to subject your life to faith and fate. One must
tower above the other.
People may mock you now but have faith that the day you will be celebrated is
around the corner.
Isaiah 59 vs. 1&2 “ Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot
save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have
separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from
you, that he will not hear”.
Brethren, did you get the full meaning of these verses? It simply means that
anyone taking any of those desperate steps mentioned earlier, is simply taking
steps away from our Saviour.
What on earth should make you, a believer; go to any herbalist for solutions.
When people put you under such pressure, ask yourself, the herbalist I am
going to meet, did he create himself? If your answer is no, you have no
business going to that person. No matter who puts pressure on you?
Do you know that there are men and women of God who have childbearing
challenges? Will they stop serving God? They usually don’t stop worshipping
God, even when members of the congregation that they have prayed for bear
children.
Have confidence that God is about to give you joy that will be the envy of
others.
Unique miracles in most cases take longer time so that the testimony can be
great.
You don’ t believe? Examples abound in the Bible. Rachael was barren when
Leah was having children but when God remembered her and opened her
womb, she had a Joseph that every one in the family bowed to.
Or is it the case of Samuel? While Peninnah had children, Hannah was
barren. When God chose to answer, Hannah, she had Samuel who became not
just a prophet but a kingmaker.
Your Samuel is on the way!
Shalom!
EmoticonEmoticon