By Alex Oguh
Prov. 13:1 Intelligent children listen to their parents; foolish children do their own thing (MSG).
This morning, as I read this verse, my mind did not go to earthly parents. My mind went to God, the Father Jesus introduced to us. Before Jesus taught us to pray in Mt. 6 and Lk 11, people have always prayed. Even Cain prayed and God answered him. What was new about prayer? They saw the way Jesus prayed; it was like conversing with a father.
These days, prayer has become mechanical again. I see people shouting all night in prayer and they give no single moment to hear the One they talked to. You don’t talk to a father like that. He will think that you are mad.
So why do we Christians pray the way we do these days? It is because we want to keep doing our own thing. It was not so in the early Church. Though Paul wanted to have his way, God answered him three times that He would not be healed. The sickness had a purpose – to help Paul come to heaven (2 Cor. 12:7-10).
In the storm on his way to Rome, Paul prayed and listened and so he had peace and spoke peace to his co-passengers in the ship (Acts 27:21-26). Until we have peace, we cannot preach peace. No wonder the work and the lives of so many men of God fit into Peter’s words in 2 Pt. 2:19:
▪︎ While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. KJV
▪︎ They promise them freedom while they themselves are slaves of destructive habits—for we are slaves of anything that has conquered us. GNT
▪︎ They promise these newcomers freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, for if they’re addicted to corruption—and they are—they’re enslaved. MSG
Do a test of your intellect. Do you always obey God or do you always or frequently do your own thing? Wake up from that. It has been why Christianity is disdained in the land. The people of this world see pretenders, not Christ. It was not so for Jesus. See how mighty He was and is, yet He did nothing on His own authority (Jn 5:19, 30; 12:49). Paul resolved that either by life or by death that Christ be magnified in him (Phil. 1:20). It was why, for him to live was Christ (Gal. 2:20-21). It is our turn to make Christ known.
▪︎ Oguh, a Lokoja- based Minister, sent this via WhatsApp