Author: Pastor J.O. Lawal

“Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father.” And Jacob noticed that Laban’s attitude toward him was not what it had been.” (Gen 31:1-2NIV)

What did Jacob notice, as we are shown in our opening text? The change in Laban’s attitude towards him? In other words, Laban no longer related to him kindly any more. And had he been kind to him before this time? Well, to some extent, he must have been kind to him. Truly, he cheated Jacob ten times of his wages. But that is not to say that he was not kind towards him at all.

For example, he gave him his two daughters as wives. Also, he provided all of them and their children with accommodation. And though he did cheat him of his wages a number of times, he did not stop him from building his own wealth. So, Laban was not altogether a bad person. And isn’t that interesting to know?

But then, at some point, Laban’s attitude towards Jacob changed. Why? The reason was that his sons had been telling him that Jacob had taken over his wealth. And was that true? No, it was not true at all?

Jacob, as we see in bible accounts, worked very hard for about 20 years for their father, Laban. And though he was working really hard for him, the man had no intention of rewarding him accordingly. Instead, he was cheating him of his wages, not even considering the fact that they were related by blood. And if God had not stepped into the situation, Jacob would have left his house empty-handed.

However, God stepped into the situation to reward Jacob for his loyalty to him. So, as Jacob would later tell his wives, it was God Himself that took away Laban’s wealth and gave it to him (Gen 31:9). More so, Laban himself knew that it was because of Jacob that God had made him wealthy and not because of his cleverness (Gen 30:27). Unfortunately, his sons were too spiritually blind to see that. So, they began to eye Jacob’s wealth and to poison his mind against him.

But then, where were these sons of Laban when Jacob was working hard night and day and making money for their father? Why were they too not actively involved in their father’s business at the time? They were probably getting drunk and sleeping around with women with the money Jacob was making for their father. Yet they could wake up one morning and start saying that Jacob had stolen their father’s wealth. What a shame!

Sadly, there are still children like them today. They live off the sweat of other people for their parents. Then when those people begin to rise out of the shadows of their parents, they will start talking rubbish with their mouths and saying things like, “If my father had not picked you up from the mud, where would you have been?” Shame on them! They are nothing but Laban’s sons, irresponsible and useless.

In any case, Jacob was attentive enough to notice what was happening at the time. He was attentive enough to know that he, his household and his wealth were no longer safe with Laban. And what did he do about that? He waited for God’s instruction. Of course, we are not told in clear terms that he prayed to God about the matter. But I personally believe that he must have communed with God about the matter. That is because the next thing we are told in the account is, “Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”” (Gen 31:3NIV)

When did the Lord tell Jacob to leave Laban’s house? It was after his observation that Laban’s attitude towards him had changed. So, there must have been some sort of communion between him and God about the situation.

At any rate, the point of it all is that Jacob did not leave Laban’s house merely on the basis of his observation; rather, he left it on the basis of a divine revelation. And that was why his departure from there did not result in harm for him.

In like manner, we too must be attentive and observant in all our dealings with people. Otherwise, where we think is safe for us may just have become a death trap for us or certain opportunities meant for our greater prosperity may simply elude us. But then, as also in Jacob’s case, as God’s people, we should not make any decision merely on the basis of our observations; rather, we should learn to always seek God’s face in His word and through prayer for divine revelations on what to do with our observations. Otherwise, we may end up making decisions that we will have no strength or wisdom to see through or making decisions that will rob us of God’s provisions for our elevation.

Cheers!

Copyright © 2024, Reality Desk, a ministry of Alaythia Bible Church –This material is the sole property of Reality Desk. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice. Please direct any questions you may have to pastor@abcministryng.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 07085711280)

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'” (Matt 23:37-39NIV)

That was the lamentation of our Lord Jesus over the people of Jerusalem just before He went to the cross. And one main thing we see from what He said about these people is that He was unable to help them experience a fulfilment of God’s purpose for them. Yes, He wanted to help them. He had the ability to help them. But they were just unwilling to be helped. So, He had to leave their house to them desolate. He had to move on. What a shame!

Now if the Lord Jesus, who was full of God’s grace and truth, couldn’t just help certain people to witness the goodness of God and be saved, we must also know that there are people we cannot help, regardless of how hard we try. Yes, it is important that we always endeavour to do for others all that God lays on our hearts and also gives us the grace to do for them. That way, we can maintain a clean and clear conscience before Him that we have done our own bit for them.

However, we must also know when no further effort we make to help some people will amount to anything. And where that is the case, we need to stop wasting the time, energy and resources God has given to us on such people and move on. Otherwise, whatever harm or frustration that comes to us as a result of it will be self-inflicted.

As we see in the bible, after God had rejected Saul, Samuel did not stop mourning for him. But he did not go to visit him. Why did he not go to visit him? It was because he knew that the man had passed the point of no return. In other words, he had gone beyond where any help he offered him would work. So, he would not visit him. Yet he wouldn’t also stop mourning for him. (Cf. 1Sam 15:34-35)

Why did Samuel continue to mourn for this man? It was because he was the one that ordained him as king. Yes, he was the one that told everybody that the man was God’s chosen and anointed one. How, then, would he face these same people again and tell them that God had changed His mind about him? Would they not even think that he probably did not get it right in the first place?

But then, it was not Samuel’s fault that Saul turned out bad. It was not his fault that the man became unfaithful to God. And it was not his fault that no attempt he made to set him right worked. Yet he kept on blaming himself for him and mourning over his spiritual death. So, God had to step in at some time and say to him, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”” (1Sam 16:1NIV)

Did you see that? God stopped Samuel from worrying about Saul and praying for him. Why? All that he was doing for him was an effort in futility. It wouldn’t change anything about Saul, neither would it change God’s mind about him. God had already moved on. He had already chosen another man in place of Saul. So, it was only wise of Samuel too to move on. And that was exactly what God told him to do.

Now do you know that God also told Jeremiah more than once not to pray for the people of Judah anymore? Why? The reason was that He was not going to answer him. That means his prayers for them would not help or save them from what was coming for them. If Jeremiah, then, continued to pray to God for them, would he not just be wasting his energy and time? He would. (Cf. Jer 7:16 & 11:14)

In like manner, there are times that God will expect us too to just let some people be and move on with our lives. And that is because there is nothing we do for them at such times, however good or honourable it may be, that will help them change their ways or that will change God’s mind about them. God has already moved on, as far as their matters are concerned. So, we too should move on.

How, then, do we know when we need to do this in our dealings with others? It is by divine revelations. What I mean is that it is not in our place to just say, “I am done helping you or praying for you,” to anyone. Rather, it is for God to determine. In other words, if God has given us the responsibility of taking care of someone or supporting them, whether through our prayers, resources or the word of God, we can’t just wake up on morning and say that we are done with them, even if the person is terribly messing up. Instead, we must first go back to God who made that person our responsibility and report to Him. Then He will tell us what to do.

Remember that both Moses and Elijah, at some point during their lifetimes, try to abandon their duties to the Israelites because of the stiffness of the neck of the people. But God literally said to both of them, “No, you can’t do that. You have to finish what you started.” And they both went on to finish what they had started. (Cf. Num 11; 1Kings 19)

So, don’t use what I am sharing with you here as your excuse for abandoning your prayer duties to anyone or for turning away from giving them whatever help God has put you in the position to give them. That will be a sin against God (1Sam 12:23). But if God Himself has already shown you that you have no further help or assistance to give to someone to save them or lift them up, you had better move on and stop wasting your time on them.

Cheers!

Copyright © 2024, Reality Desk, a ministry of Alaythia Bible Church –This material is the sole property of Reality Desk. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice. Please direct any questions you may have to pastor@abcministryng.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 07085711280)

“”Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”” (Luke 10:41-42NIV)

Those were Jesus’ words to Martha, sister of Mary and Lazarus, when He once visited her house. But why would Jesus say such words to her? It was because she had complained to Him about her sister, Mary.

Now what was her complaint about her? Well, it was simply that Mary had left her to handle all the preparations that had to be made in the house alone. What preparations were they to make? From the context, those preparations, for the most part, had to do with the meal that Jesus and those with Him would eat.

In any case, whether they had to do with what Jesus and those with Him would eat or something else, what was clear was that Martha was upset that Mary, her sister, left her all alone to deal with all that had to be done. And she probably would not have voiced out her annoyance and frustration, if Jesus had rebuked Mary for being irresponsible on the occasion. But Jesus did not rebuke her at all. Instead, He just kept on teaching her and others who were there with Him.

Now when Martha could not take it anymore, she confronted Jesus and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” (Luke 10:40NIV) Think about that. This woman accused Jesus of not caring at all about her frustration. And she did that because she thought that would wake Him up to do the needful.

How often we too do that! We accuse God of not caring at all or enough about our challenges, trials or frustration. And we think that if we accuse Him or nag Him long enough in that manner, He would wake up from His slumber and attend to us.

But God never sleeps nor slumbers, as we are told in the bible (Ps 121:3-4). Instead, He is always awake and alive to whatever is happening in our lives. Why, then, won’t He act on our behalf and make things go in our favour, as we often expect Him to do? Well, the reason may just be the same or similar to the reason Jesus did not attend to Martha on that occasion.

As we further see in the account, Jesus’ response to Martha’s complaint was both shocking and revealing. In other words, first, His response was contrary to the woman’s expectation. Second, His response showed that she was the one that missing it and not Mary, her sister. She was the one that had misplaced her priorities, not Mary. So, she was actually the one that needed rebuking, not Mary.

But how was that so? Well, the answer is in the part of the account that reads, “But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made… ” (Luke 10:40NIV) Did you see that? Martha was distracted. When do you say that someone is distracted? It is when the person is paying attention to the wrong thing. That thing my not be bad in itself or at all. But it is not something that should get the person’s attention at the time. And if he should continue to pay attention to that thing, he may end up totally losing out on what should really be getting his attention.

What this means, then, is that Martha too was supposed to sit down and be listening to Jesus at the time, as Mary and others who were there were doing. But she would not settle down to listen to Him because her mind was unduly occupied with other things that she needed to do. However, the only thing that she was supposed to give her attention and devotion to at the time was the word of God that Jesus was sharing. Sadly, she allowed distraction to make her miss her word for the hour. And that was because she did not get her priorities right.

Mary, on the contrary, got her priorities right. And she was so convinced about what was right for her at the time that she did not join her sister, Martha, in whatever she was doing or look her way at all. Therefore, the Lord said that what she had gained from that day’s teaching would remain with her forever, working in her life for her good.

What, then, is the point of all this? It is that we need to get our priorities right all the time and make the main thing the main thing in our lives. See, there may be all kinds of good things that we can give ourselves to in life and that others around us are busy doing. But if they are out of line with what God wants us to be doing at any given moment, we should not give ourselves to them, whether out of fear, greed, jealousy, indecisiveness, loneliness or desire for the praise of men. Otherwise, we may end up being frustrated in life and also missing out on what should really be ours.

Not only that, if we don’t get our priorities right, God may just be watching us in our frustration and not do anything about it, as Jesus’ did in Martha’s case. And if we won’t open our mouths to talk to Him in such situations, He may still not say anything to us about what we are missing. Then we may just go on and waste our lives on irrelevancies or non-essentials.

Now my prayer is that you will not waste your life on irrelevancies or anything inconsistent with God’s purpose for your life. But you too must learn to pray and to give yourself to the word of God, so that your heart may be loaded all the time with revelations of the things that you need to prioritise with in life. Then you will be able to gain those eternal things that God wants you to gain in life instead of living in frustration.

Cheers!

Copyright © 2024, Reality Desk, a ministry of Alaythia Bible Church –This material is the sole property of Reality Desk. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice. Please direct any questions you may have to pastor@abcministryng.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 07085711280)

“What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come, so do what we tell you…” (Acts 21:22-23NIV)

Who said those words? The Christian elders in Jerusalem? To whom did they say them? It was to Paul that they said them. But why would they tell him to do whatever they told him? It was because they wanted to protect him from his Jewish enemies.

As the account goes, because of the things Paul had been preaching everywhere he went about faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for man’s salvation and the abolishing of the Law of Moses by Him, many of the Jews saw him as an enemy of the state. In fact, even many who had become Christians among them were unsure of what to do with him. That was because most of them were still zealous for the Law of Moses and the customs of the Jews. And hearing that Paul had been teaching the Jews abroad to abandon this law and their customs did not make them happy with him at all.

If all these people, then, should see him in Jerusalem, they would most likely not treat him kindly. In fact, the elders of the church were certain that if the religious leaders of the Jews should find out that he was in town, they would stop at nothing to destroy him. And remember that Jesus did not teach the people to abandon the Law of Moses during His earthly ministry. Yet they killed him. How, then, would they treat a man like Paul, who was teaching their people to turn away from the Law of Moses and their customs? They would give him a worse treatment than they gave Jesus.

It was against this backdrop, then, that the church elders in Jerusalem at the time, including James the brother of our Lord Jesus, told Paul to listen to their counsel and act accordingly. And what was their counsel? It was that he would join certain men that had some rituals to make in the temple in performing those rituals. That way, those who saw him in town would be given the impression that he was still obedient to the Law of Moses and that everything that had been said against him was just a rumor. (Cf. Acts 21:17-25)

But was that the truth about the matter? No! Was Paul really living according to the Law of Moses at the time? No! Why, then, did the leadership of the church want him to give a false impression of himself to the people? As I said before, it was because they felt that was the only way to protect him from their attack, an attack that could result in the loss of his life.

Did Paul, then, listen to them or not? He did. Why? First, it was because he knew that what they were asking him to do was really nothing. That means it was not something that was capable of hurting his inner and genuine faith in the Lord Jesus. Rather, it was something to be done to promote peace in his life and for the people around him.

Now, of course, the sacrifice this apostle was being asked to offer was totally unnecessary for salvation or righteousness, for Jesus has already taken care of these things for all humanity through His redemptive sacrifice. So, offering it would actually be a compromise of faith on Paul’s part. However, offering it would not make him sin against God, since it was God Himself that had commanded it in the first place. Therefore, his compromise to offer it was a worthy compromise.

The second reason Paul listened to those elders of the church must have been that he knew that what they wanted him to do would not accomplish the results they were hoping it would accomplish. As we see in the account of his ministry and journey, the Spirit of God had warned him severally that prison and hardships were facing him wherever he went. In addition to that, another man of God, Agabus, had prophesied to him that he would be bound in Jerusalem and handed over to the gentiles, if he should go there. (Cf. Acts 20:22-23 & 21:10-11)

Therefore, no amount of pretence could keep him from being persecuted, arrested and imprisoned by the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem. And that was eventually what happened. He was arrested and handed over to the gentile lords to be dealt with.

But then, if he had argued that out with the church elders, simply because he had revelations of what would become of him, he would just have been seen by them as an arrogant person. That, of course, would have ruined whatever beautiful fellowship he might have hoped to have with them. So, instead of arguing with these highly respected leaders of the church, Paul decided to listen to them and compromise. But again, it was a worthy compromise, a compromise that did not alter the will of God for his life and that also made it possible for him to continue to have the respect of those church elders.

What, now, is the wisdom in all this for us? It is simply that it is not every compromise that is sinful. There are worthy compromises, even of faith. And our ability to know when to employ them will be a true manifestation of the wisdom of God in us. As we see in Paul’s case, any compromise that will make peace reign where we are is a worthy compromise and should be employed by us, as long as it will not make us sin against God.

Also, any compromise that will not prevent things from happening the way we expect them to happen but save us from appearing arrogant is a worthy one and should be employed by us when necessary. And my prayer is that the Spirit of God will daily fill you with sufficient wisdom to recognize those worthy compromises you need to employ in order to not to ruin the beautiful relationships in your life, while you are seeking to maintain your faith and integrity before God and man. Amen.

Copyright © 2024, Reality Desk, a ministry of Alaythia Bible Church –This material is the sole property of Reality Desk. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice. Please direct any questions you may have to pastor@abcministryng.com or call: 08037592851 (WhatsApp Number: 07085711280)