Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a reproach to any people.- Proverbs 14:34.
Constrained is the word to describe my resolve to write on the plan for the National Call for the fasting and prayers being organised by the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria PFN for a 40 days Fasting and Prayer to seek God’s intervention in the economic affliction the country is going through. Bishop Wale Oke and his deputy, John Praise, on Friday addressing newsmen in Abuja, and the allusion of the General Overseer of Redeemed Christian Church, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye and the Director General of National Prayer Forum, Chief Segun Afolorunikan has further reinforced the plan that it has become necessary to ask for divine intervention to resolve the hardship facing Nigerians. I was waiting to hear the men of God speak a little further to declare, as a first step, the need for national repentance, starting from the church, to usher in God’s mercy. Lo and behold! Nothing of such was uttered by the bishop, known to be a good bible scholar.
Admittedly, I was miffed by this seeming oversight if not deliberate action of putting the cart before the horse. I wondered if this call was meant to impress Nigerians or God who they claimed to be representing.
It is evident from the scriptures that fasting and prayer alone, do not move God when they are not preceded or accompanied by pure motives. Otherwise, God would not have rebuked the Israelites, in Isaiah 58, for their hypocritical fasting and prayers that was bereft of genuine obedience to God and selfless love to their fellow man. Our lord Jesus also rebuked the religious leaders of his day, especially the Pharisees, for their pretentious fasting and prayers, unaccompanied by true commitment to the entirety of God’s word. David exemplified this when he said in Psalm 51 that God would not despise a broken and contrite spirit. The Ninevites received God’s mercy only after they had demonstrated genuine repentance and made a drastic turn from their lascivious and godless lifestyles.
While it is appropriate for the church to seek God’s mercy for the nation, it must be done according to divine pattern. God told Moses to build according to pattern. God has his model for the church and all that relates to true worship. He cannot be mocked. He knows the heart of all men. “God’s eyes run to and from throughout the whole earth… .”2 Chronicles 16: 9.
In declaring 40 days of fasting and prayers, the church must lead the nation to repentance after it has itself publicly acknowledged its own sins and ask God for forgiveness. This is because the church has contributed in no small way to the corruption – induced calamity that has befallen our nation. The church, the Pentecostals especially, has used the gospel message to promote its own agenda of acquisition of fame, power, influence, and affluence. The ‘gospel’ of material prosperity which our men of God have “spiritualized”, has led many Nigerians who identify with their ministries, to make mammon out of money even when they pretend that their “blessings” are from God. Some of the money used to build the massive religious centers are traceable to members whose records are not clean before men lest before God. Some genuine Christians who work in public service would attest to the open or disguised corrupt practices of their fellow so-called believers whose only testimonial is their membership of these ministries, and their man of God. How about businessmen and politicians who identity with these churches? What kind of gospel do they hear that makes them comfortable to continue in their fraudulent acquisition of money?
Our men of God will often pretend they are more spiritual or ministry- successful than Christ who repeatedly warned against the love of money and lived an austere live. Same with his apostles, the forerunner of our faith. What kind of prayer are we then organizing that does not demand repentance from our complicity in the money – motivated wickedness that has brought our country to its knees?
God promises to hear the prayers of his humble and repentant people. The word repentance emphasizes the importance of returning to God with humility, and turning away from our greed and lasciviousness that has, like virus, infected many Nigerians in and out of the church. The call for prayers should not be a jamboree. It should be a national gathering unto repentance, and plea for healing of a nation and its people.
2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land”. and will forgive their sin and heal their land”.
*Lanre Ogundipe, a veteran journalist writes from Abuja.
