A Lay Preacher in Methodist Church Nigeria (MCN), Diocese of Ibadan, Sister Sola Fakolade on Sunday charged Christians to always be on guard so as not to be caught napping by any of the life’s battles, insisting that life is a warfare whether one takes it or rejects it.
She gave this admonition while preaching at the Methodist Church Nigeria (MCN), Orogun, Agbeni Circuit, Ibadan at this year’s annual Mothering Sunday throughout the Diocese with the theme ‘I will fight for you’ taken from the book of Exodus 14:14 in the Bible.
Sister Fakolade who disclosed that Christians’ answer to the commonly asked question of whether ‘life is a warfare’ (se ogun late ni?) should always be affirmative ‘yes’ said “truly that’s exactly what life is. It is a warfare and that’s why God promises that He will fight for His children”.
Recalling the fearful episode by the bank of the Red Sea when the Israelites were being led out of Egypt and which provoked the divine utterance from God, she maintained that nobody would find him or herself in that condition the Israelites found themselves that moment that would not feel jittery.
But, God being God, according to her “is able and capable of doing anything, the display of which was seen on that day. The beauty of this our God is that He remains the same and never tired of doing wonders and miracles if only we can cast our burden upon Him with absolute surrendering”.
She said the wars being talked about “are not what we can see or perceive physically which is why we need to be on the side of God and He also on our side to enjoy His intervention. There’s nothing we can do on our own to overcome which is why we need Him always. The moment we aspire to move to the next level, we should expect an unseen battle and only His unseen hand can deliver us”.
Quoting various scriptures to buttress her assertions like Ps. 121, Ps. 46:1, 1Sam. 17:47, 43 among others, she insisted that “the world we in live is full of evil and wicked people which is why as Christians, we must at all times let the motto of the Boys Scout- ‘Be Prepared’ be our guide”.
Sister Fakolade, a benefactor of the Orogun Church recalled a wedding programme of a 53 year-old lady recently stressing that if not for the wickedness of the world, why and what should cause such a long delay in the lady’s life?
She said the new bride in her narration disclosed that she had planned to marry at around 25 years old of age and everything worked perfectly for her. As at five weeks to the wedding, a thousand people had already purchased the uniform commonly referred to ‘aso- ebi’ because of her family background and the first born of the only two children of her highly influential parents.
Her husband to be, according to the story had flown in from his abroad base for the wedding. Argument of which cloth to wear ensued between the would be couple and it blossomed into a serious problem that could not be resolved and which put an end to the wedding arrangements following which the husband flew back to his base just like that.
In the meantime, she continued, ahead of the wedding proper, the engagement ceremony had been performed which the would be couple considered enough license to go into intimacy and which had resulted into pregnancy. Even when every other attempts to work out a reconciliation failed, the pregnancy remained and the child produced said to have become a lawyer remains the symbol of the aborted relationship.
“So, if the bitter experience of this lady was not the manifestation of the wicked world we live in, what do we call it? Our life is in our respective hands to decide or choose how we want to live it. But, we have our father who is in heaven and ever ready to fight for us and deliver us the way He delivered David from Goliath among several others like that.
“To however enjoy the manifestation of His promise to fight for us as Christians, we cannot rely on our physical strength to overcome, we must be prayerful, give praises and thanks and to be very conversant with His words, not be reading the Bible alone, but by committing to memory some necessary portions that will be handy on the days of battle”, she stated further.
