Praise Kolawole – REALITIES MINISTRIES

Date: April 15, 2025

Series: Youth for Jesus

Number: Vol. 8, No. 48

“When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” So Jesus went with them…” (Luke 7:4-6NIV)

Who came to Jesus, as mentioned in our opening text? It was certain elders of the Jews. Why did they come to Him? it was because a Roman centurion had sent them.As the account goes, a servant of this centurion had fallen ill and was about to die. But the man was not ready to lose him. He was not ready to lose him because he valued him highly and was willing to do anything within his capacity to save him. (Cf. Luke 7:2)

Now that is teaching us something. And it is that we must labour to make ourselves useful and relevant to the people in our lives, regardless of how low our positions in life may be. That way, they might someday be willing to go to any extent to favour us.In any event, even though this centurion was willing to do anything to save his servant from death, he could not freely access the only available and authentic solution.

How? Our Lord Jesus was the only person the man knew at the time that could immediately and surely save his servant from death. But He was not someone that he could easily see or approach or bring into his house. That was because He was a very busy person. Not only that, Jesus was a Jew and Jews would not freely fellowship with gentiles or enter their houses. So, to get Him to come and heal this man’s servant in time seemed almost impossible.

Nevertheless, because the man was determined to save his servant, he humbled himself and went to plead with some elders of the Jews to help him quicken the process of seeing Jesus and perhaps bringing Him into his house. And what gave him the confidence to meet those elders? It was the fact that he too had been good to them. He had proven to them that he loved their nation, even though he was a Roman centurion.

In fact, he had built a synagogue for them.Therefore, when he met them with his request, they lost no time at all in meeting Jesus on his behalf. And when they got to Him, they begged Him earnestly to go to the man’s house to heal his servant, even though they knew that Jews would not normally do something like that.

Why? The reason was that the man had been good to them. So, they had all kinds of things to say in his favour. Did Jesus, then, answer them or not? He did. And though the man, out of respect, eventually asked Him not to come again to his house but to send His word instead, the fact remains that Jesus was willing to go to his house to save his servant, in spite of their ethnic and religious differences. (Cf. Luke 7:6-10)

Now what is the point of all this? It is that being generous and good to others pays. No, we are not to be good and generous to people because of anything we hope to receive in return from them. Rather, we are to be good and generous to them because it is something God loves and will reward.

However, if we are good and generous to others, we will be making it easy for them to have something to say in our favour to God and to men. And where, when and how this may benefit us is not something anyone knows or can speak about. But a day may come when the only thing that will open certain doors for us is what others have to say in our favour. What, then, will they have to say in our favour?

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Title: Don’t be critical

6Series: From Pastor’s Desk

Number: Vol. 14, No. 4

5Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be multiplied to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to another week of the month of March 2026. My prayer is that God will keep you humble and gentle in all your dealings with those around you, so that you will not say or do anything to them that will expose you to His judgment. Amen.

As we see in the bible, one of the things that can expose us to God’s judgment is being critical of others. Truly, no one in this life is perfect in conduct. Only God is. So, people can make mistakes. And where this is the case, attempts must surely be made to set them Title: Don’t be criticalright.

However, whether people have actually made mistakes or have been mistaken to have made mistakes, how we intervene in their matters will determine whether they listen to us or not. It will also determine whether we have the praise of God or not.For example, when the friends of Job came to him in his time of distress, he thought that they had come to comfort him. But instead of comforting him, all of them ended up criticising him, accusing him of doing things that he never did. And did he listen to them? No, he did not. Did he accept all the lies they told against him? No, he did not. (Cf. Job 2:11-13)

Why did Job not listen to them? First, it was because they did not verify the evil reports they had heard about him before of accusing of doing wickedness. Second, it was because they all spoke to him harshly and not tenderly, ignoring completely the fact that he was in serious pains and had also lost all his children and wealth. So, even if they were right, there was no way a man in pains like him would listen to their harsh and critical words.Now how did God attend to this matter? He attended to it with anger. And who was He angry with? Job’s friends! Why? First, it was because they misused the knowledge of Him that they had in criticising Job. Second, it was because they did not comfort the man at all but added to his pains. And as God told them, they needed to go and beg for his forgiveness and prayer. Otherwise, His wrath would come on them. (Cf. Job 42:7-9)

In like manner, God’s wrath may fall on any of us for being critical of others. See, God is watching all our relationships to see how we conduct ourselves in them. And where He can see that we are carelessly injuring the lives or faith of others with our words, He will not ignore it. Yes, in His mercy, He may draw our attention to our folly, as He did with Job’s friends, so that we may repent and do the needful. But He may just judge us without any warning, as He judged Miriam and Aaron for criticising Moses on an occasion. (Cf. Num 12

)So, while nothing is wrong with correcting people if they are wrong, we must be sure that we are not correcting anybody on the basis of things that we have not verified. Then we must also learn to be gentle in correcting people, even if we are certain that they have missed it. Otherwise, what is meant to be a word of correction may become a word of criticism. And that may not accomplish the purpose we intend it to accomplish. On the contrary, it may even expose us to the judgement of God. May we not foolishly expose ourselves to His judgment, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a lovely week.