Matthew 6:12. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And then there was shouting and singing of ‘TGIF! Thank God is Friday oui! Thank God this brutal workweek almost done! The weekend is upon us and the time to party finally come!’ Ah Lord eh! How we do like our parties. Wish we could even give a small percentage of the time we think about partying to thinking about God. Our lives would be so much better all around.
And it’s not like we can’t party in and with the Lord, because we can. Like all of us, the Lord likes a good party, but one that honours Him, in ways that glorify and proclaim His holiness and righteousness, not the leggo-beast parties that the world seems to value so much. Remember the numerous feasts that the Israelites were commanded to have in olden times. Well, likewise we could also have numerous occasions to sing and praise and glorify our great and wonderful God.
Like Bruh Paul told the Ephesians. ‘See then that ye walk circumspectly (carefully), not as fools, but as wise. Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess (dissipation); but be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.’ (Eph. 5:15-21).
Yes friends, that’s how believers ought to behave in their daily lives. Making melody to God in our hearts, while walking circumspectly and wise amongst the evil and ungodly world in which we live, not being licentious and dissipated and ungodly like so many of us tend to be. Please remember that God sees all that we do, both in public and private, and also reads the motives of our hearts, so it’s foolish to claim to be a believer and then living so much like the world. We might fool our peers, but not the Lord.
As Granny always warned: ‘Sonny boy, please remember, that drunk or sober, always to mind yuh business.’ But, unfortunately, in this crazy and evil world, too many of us supposed believers are not minding our business like we should, not minding our p’s and q’s, crossing our t’s and dotting our i’s. And that’s a big part of why our world is so depraved and ungodly; Christians are not doing their part; we are not standing up to the heathen as we should. We are placidly accepting whatever the world offers when we know to do better.
And not only is our stance against the world not good enough, but our help, edification and encouragement to each other is not worthwhile either. Instead of building up our fellow saints we are ever so quick to pull them down. We forget that one of the building blocks of our faith is helping each other.
As Bruh Paul said earlier in his letter to the Ephesians. ‘Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.’ (Eph. 4:29-32)
Now, if we could only lower the great amount of bitterness, wrath, malice and evil speaking that currently exists in Christ’s church, both the church and the world would be a whole lot better off. We all desire people to be nice to us and forgive us, but sadly we don’t do the same to and for them. Whatever happened to the Golden Rule: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ And remember Jesus’ very decisive words on forgiveness in the Sermon on the Mount. A part of the prayer He taught us reads: ‘And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.’ (Matt. 6:12)
That means we are asking the Lord to forgive us in proportion to how we forgive others. And Jesus went on to further clarify that statement by saying: ‘For if we forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.’ (Matt. 6:14-15) That’s it loud and clear friends; forgive and you will be forgiven; don’t forgive, neither will you be forgiven.
But we have become so arrogant and boldface these days that we go to the Lord asking for forgiveness, while bearing a whole lot of unforgiveness in our hearts towards others. And when the Lord doesn’t forgive us and answer our prayers, we foolishly wonder why and get angry with God, even to the point of turning away from Him. Oh my people, many of our problems, anxieties and woes stem directly from our ungodly behaviour. Why can’t we wake up and see it eh? Anyway, it’s never too late to make amends, so let’s begin that process right now nuh, by going to the Lord in sincere prayer, asking for His divine help through our Friday Chant.
Altogether now: ‘Oh Lord, thanks for getting me safely through this past week. You know it’s been rough… what with all the anxiety, the confusion and havoc that the Covid-19 virus and our many other problems are causing. We can’t seem to fix it on our own Lord, that means we desperately need your help. Oh heavenly Father, with your omnipotent help, and our trusting faith, we know that we can stand strong and steadfast and defeat both the virus and the unrest in our streets.
So Lord, we sincerely ask you today to give the governments and those involved in the forefront of this serious and unexpected storm, the wise guidance to handle the situation properly, with the least amount of loss to life and property as possible. And please help those of us who must go out to work amidst all the confusion, to be responsible and to stay safe, and avoid any more serious setbacks.
And Lord, we fervently pray that You’ll use this situation to bring a lot of backsliders back to your fold, show them the error of their ways. And please introduce a whole new flock, who will embrace your LOVE and compassion by the example, we, your faithful believers set. Yes Lord, please use this pandemic and the unrest in the streets as a means of restoring faith in You, so that our sinful world can wake up and smell the coffee, sweet and strong! We pray this in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Amen!’
And as the saying goes, ‘it takes two to tango.’ So, if we want the Lord to do our bidding, then we have to reciprocate by doing His. It’s as simple as that my brethren! Much LOVE!
…two together are better than one alone…and one with God is the best there is…
Hear our podcast at https://open.spotify.com/show/3aVfqIC1CqwGybISs9dZJ8
SCRIP-BITS 