9 Months of Silence. Boy!

This morning I almost fell into a trap--the Zacharias trap. I knew it; I saw it; then I quickly ran for my dear life! God can be dangerous. Men! The Bible says He's a consuming fire!

How did I nearly get myself burnt? This is how it all happened.

I woke up and started my usual personal prayer, like Zacharias. Of course, I praised and thanked God for another day--for me it is always the equivalent of another life. Who has the power to return back to life after lying unconscious for eight or so hours, so completely exposed and vulnerable? Yes, I thanked Him for sleeping and waking; for sound health; for the very breath of life, and all that. I can't start to imagine the prospect of some greedy politician-fool gathering all the oxygen in the air overnight into his home in Abuja and making a video of it, and asphyxiating the rest of us. No, God didn't let that happen, so I thanked Him for that.

Those were about the right things I could muster to say to Him. Yes, now I remember, I also asked Him to soften the hard parts of your heart, so that more of His light can enter.

The next thing I heard, I was complaining and asking Him some tough questions about a couple of items on my wishlist He didn't seem to care about. Let's face it, some of those items have been pending for, in human reckoning, an excruciating long time. I have prayed, fasted, decreed, claimed, raised a few curses against blockers, sowed seeds, reminded Him I'm a tither, yet He's not moved. What's He waiting for, I asked? When is He going to open the windows of Heaven over those items? What else does He need me to do, for crying out loud?

He didn't waste time.

"Have you and your family been hungry because of those items?" He asked.

"No," I said.

"Have you died because of those items?" He asked next and I told Him no again.

"Well, have you been sick because of those items?" He asked next. No!

"Okay, tell me what you lack because of those items."

I was tempted to point to my bruised ego, but then I said nothing. It is hopeless arguing with Him.

Just when I was beginning to feel like Job, He made me open to Luke Chapter-1 and read the entire thing.

"Stop thinking about Job," He said to me. "If you're not careful, I will treat you like Zacharias."

Men, that was when I ran! "God, just do those items whenever you like. Simply leave me alone, I'm sorry."

What! Dumb for nine months? God forbid! But that is our dilemma as God's children. We cross words with Him too often.

Zacharias was a righteous man by every standard, he and his wife. Boy, did they serve God with devotion! But they had no child. That was their wish for many decades, until they grew too old to biologically bear children, so they forgot about the matter and continued to serve God.

One day, right in the thick of his service to Baba, He sent an angel to proclaim to Zacharias, "Your prayer has been heard. You and your wife will bear a son."

"Impossible!" Zacharias shouted.

That was the last word he spoke for more than nine months!

Which kain answered prayer? Prayer wey we don stop to pray since which time? Which kain son for dis kain old age? You wan kill my wife? Abeg talk anoda tin, oga Angel! Your presence alone dey make me fear. No talk fearful tins join!

While Zacharias was reminding God about the demands of biology, God was ready to recreate biology.

"But, Father, that is not fair now," I said to God this morning. "You made the old man dumb after making him wait for so long?"

"Listen, don't question my judgement," God said. "If I didn't make him dumb, the man would use his own mouth to spoil what I wanted to do. Don't you see I restored his speech when I was done with my act? Your words can stop my hand. Indeed, the words many of my children speak every day are roadblocks to my acts. That is why I want you to shut up about your own wishlist."

I shut up and retreated.

The very next month, God sent the same angel to another child of His with a more bizarre promise. This God eh!

"Mary, you've never known a man. Yes, you're a virgin, but you'll become pregnant as a virgin and bear a son."

Mary was stunned but, unlike Zacharias, she didn't shout impossible. Rather, she was inquisitive. She said to God, "Tell me how you intend to do it."

You see, the acts of God are stunning, but not impossible.

God said to Mary, "Blessed is she who has believed, for there shall be a performance of the things that were told her."

When next you're tempted to doubt Him, remember Zacharias; remember me also.

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