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09.06.2014 Feature Article

Re: My Humble Prayer On A Rainy Day

Re: My Humble Prayer On A Rainy Day
09.06.2014 LISTEN

My questioning of God was almost as aggressive as the rains of Thursday 5th June 2014,

as captured in my article ' A humble prayer on a rainy day' published on http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/religion/artikel.php?ID=311834... And why not?


God had rained the lives of the poor and the vulnerable in the Ghanaian society away. Well, so I thought.

But the public repudiation of the said missive was neither lenient . They did battle for God, as demonstrated by reaction to the publication by The Daily Graphic readers on

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=557981324314656&id=122108447901948&refid=17

'Who are you to question God?' They charged. 'This is too much disrespect to the almighty God in one write up, especially when the devastating effect of the rain was self inflicted. ' The accusations went on.

'Did God blocked our drainages?
'You don't speak to God that way, show some respect ok, who do you think you are? , etc' .

As intoned supra, the public really won a battle for Christ.

The purpose of this rejoinder is neither a rebuttal to why people deserve to lose their property/die for acting inappropriately nor an attempt to vindicate myself from any public misconception about my respect for God.

Except that on the morning of Monday June 9, 2014, God inspired me to offer the following perspective on what ACTUALLY constitutes disrespect to Him.

Perhaps it would be a useful education to the one who might lack clarity on such a simple but so often misunderstood concept.

You don't disrespect God by questioning Him aggressively and emotionally in moments of grave pain and hurt. The Psalms of David are generous with classical examples.

OUR GOD IS NOT AN EMOTIONAL MAN.
God will always have us come to Him with our hurts, no matter how inappropriately they are presented than allow them to turn us away from Him. God admits and accepts our weakness in offering effective prayer as eloquently explained in Romans 8:26.

'The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.'

God will have us understand that WHAT CONSTITUTE DISRESPECT TO HIM IS SINFUL LIVING. And even worse when it is clothed in godliness. Call it HYPOCRISY!!

God ONLY requires Holiness from His Children( 1 peter 1:16), by presenting our bodies as living sacrifice (Romans 12:1), keeping His commandments( John 14:15) and doing so with love (Matthew23:37).

That is preferred to clothing sin in the godliness of religious courtesies.

'Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! Remarked Jesus in Matthew 23:27, "You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean."

Like the Apostle Paul, we must be on a constant mission of seeking deeper knowledge of God and our responsibility to Him.

So in Philippians 3:10 Paul opines, ''I want to know Christ--yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death'

Unfortunately Our world has been and remains painful and bitter to live in because of man's distorted knowledge of God. So much bloodshed in defense of God.

Does it matter whether this is done by the Romans in the crucifixion of Christ or violence in the Middle East in defense sacred lands, Or perpetuated by Boko Haram by sexing and killing innocent school girls for an Islamic Nigerian Republic. Or done in Ghana by angry religious commentators responding

to a fellow who calls on God to show mercy to our poor and vulnerable by not raining their lives away?

May we not worship The Lord with our lips, whilst our hearts are faraway ( Isaiah 29:13) .

But instead fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.

For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

Akyena Brantuo Benjamin
[email protected]

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