PRAYER – THE SECRET PLACE PT3 (FORGIVENESS)

“And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Matthew 6:12

This part of the divine guideline is always sidelined because of a simple reason; IT IS VERY DIFFICULT TO REALLY FORGIVE. Meditating on this guideline made me ponder over two really closely used words that tend to be used as a prerequisite for one another. These words are forgiving and forgetting.

To simply say you can forget an incident that hurt or is hurting you because you have decided to “forgive” the person have been proven to be difficult. So what Jesus meant when He said “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” is simply this, God help us to intentionally completely overlook offences committed against us with no change in our attitude concerning the offense and the offender. This therefore impresses on me that an act of forgiveness is a deliberate act; one consciously made.

There’s a saying I grew up hearing, “FORGIVE AND FORGET”. This is a true saying because when you decide to forgive, your mind begins to consciously dissociate itself from the pain of that offence thereby making us loose accurate recollection of the said event. Please it will be nice to note that shutting down, blocking or “erasing” an offensive event, experience or incident is not the same as FORGIVING AND FORGETTING. The former (FORGIVE) allows us face the pain and gives you the opportunity to make conscious decision to react independent of the OFFENSE hence allowing you heal and inevitably FORGETTING the offense. The former is what I call a BOTTLING PROCESS; this process always comes back to bite the person who is bottling these feelings. It involves you compartmentalizing the pain of the experience of the offence which most times you have to face again.

As Christians, we need to consciously ask for grace to truly FORGIVE, as this in turn compels heaven to show us the same level of forgiveness shown by us to others. We should always ask for grace to forgive and forget; becoming better Christians. Romans 9:16

Prayer - The Secret Place Pt 1

I was led this morning to change the subject for discuss today. I read something yesterday on a friend's profile and it said "THIS IS MY SECRET, I PRAY". That statement got me thinking of the basic principles we seize to partake in to achieve greatness while we search for more Charismatic Principles that will transform, regenerate and alter the events in our life. a simple, powerful, fundamental principle to continuously seeing the hand of God in our lives is prayer.

There's a difference between a ritual and a doctrine. Doctrine may have inclusive rituals that support its beliefs. But a ritual can not be a doctrine. Prayer has been acknowledged to many religions as the fundamental "ritual" that is part of the doctrine that man communicates with God (or their god - as the case implies) with or through.

The 21st Century brought an advent of technology that has literally turned the way people behave, relate and even communicate with and to one and another. In our day people are better friends with their phones than they are with human beings, there are more "realistic" online relationships than physical relationships that exists, people would rather send you a message than tell you what they are feeling. In the midst of all this man is seeking for ways to answer, understand and strengthen his relationship with his inner man; for christian this in turn leads us to God. This continuous quest always leads to us having some mental and verbal communication with Him; prayer.

As Christian we learn from the bible, precisely Christ (Matthew 6: 9-13). In this verses of scripture Jesus begins to give an outline of what and how we should pray. We shall discuss in the coming days to fully understand what each phrase may mean to various classes and how to effectively work with this divine outline for our good.

Today I want to focus on something Jesus said about prayer in Matthew 26:41; Mark 14:37. He said can you not pray with me for one hour. When I read this scripture I considered this an assignment not a guideline.

So how do I start this process of maintaining the One Hour Mark Daily. Please I will like you to recall that Jesus never said that why could pray with me through out the time I was praying, he mentioned an hour. So it tells me two things; Jesus prayed much longer than an while in Gethsemane and that he never insisted on an hour stretch of prayer.

Have you ever asked yourself how many hours you spend driving, chatting, arguing about your favourite football stars, actors, singers and entertainers, politics, responding to BBM, Whatsapp, Wechat, Instagram, and Text Messages? Before I continue kindly do this analysis and you will discover that an average of 90 mins is spent every day to respond to these messages. A study has shown that average individual today spends over eight hours (8Hrs) on electronic devices; these devices include your TV, Mobile device, Electronic Gadgets etc. Also have shown that most people are awake and active from 7am to 9pm each day which adds up to 15 Hours of being awake.

Based on this math I will like to suggest a simple exercise. Prayer for 4 minutes for every Hour you are awake and active. This may seem funny but if you can maintain this ritual, you will imbibe a doctrine that has eternal value to you, your family and everyone around you.

What we See, What we retain and Our Beliefs Pt1

Ever wonder why in most crime series, the clergy turns out to be the bad guy? Or the person who raped a child and is still serving in the same parish, ministry, school or organization? Or how prophesy is turned to a scam played by most pastors to get the congregation to "enrich the pastors"?

If this hasn't struck you, then I advice you go back and do some more watching. It may not be dominant in Nigeria for now as religion is a key factor in daily running of the country. Nevertheless with the rate of urbanization one wonders how soon this could be easily brought into the country. Hence the need for caution and clarity in what these lovely Television programs could cause us as a country

Studies have shown that we passively retain what we see at least two times less than what we hear. This memory gotten from things we see however tends to be more planted in our conscious when these images (which initially are suppose to fade) become a regular viewing for us. This is sounds very familiar if you remember Romans 10:17. Hence the idea is to continuously plant these suggestive in the programs that we watch and most times enjoy.

As i watched I notice that other religions were tactically projected to have better followers, members and leadership than that of the church. This has slowly become a trend; a systematic process of diminishing the credibility of the gospel we preach.

Most people go to church only on Sundays, services last an average of fours and sermons one hour. Another research showed that people loose retention of 20% of whatever they hear every hour after its being said to them. So this implies that people will most likely completely "forget" what is said on the pulpit by the Tuesday after the Sunday they went to church.

So what we are fed during the week is basically all we see; TV Programs (Sitcoms, Crime, Adventure Etc). Its therefore important for Christians to find their way into all forms of media and not create a sect for Christian Programs, we already have that quite sufficiently but seek ways to make these programs preach christ to people. 

Christians, Church And The Media

I begin this series with a thought that has literally overwhelmed me in the past four months, and that is - the continuous quest by secular to dismember and ridicule Christianity and the beliefs we have.
I have love crime series, I mean I see them as both entertaining and educative. Criminal Minds, NCIS, CSI, How To Get Away With Murder, Major Crimes, Castle, Bones, The Fixer are just a handful of these series that have taught me alot about various kinds of data and information that may not be easily thought of on a day to day basis.
While these series have cutting edge story lines and intriguing build ups, they always have a side line impression on various subjects that speak on our daily lives. These subjects range from homosexuality, religion, and race.
In the coming days I will be basically focusing on the issue of religion; Christianity to be precise. While cant downplay the effect of the publicity of various clergy doing thing completely contrary to the beliefs and doctrines of what they profess. We will carefully take time to share ways in which we (as Christians) can make the difference in the media.
We are Born Again to Hide In The Church, We are Born Again To Affect Our World, Be The Salt and the Bearers of Light.