FIRES AND BACKFIRES

Howdy.

How are you doing? How's preparation for Christmas and the year's end coming along? 

Welcome to today's gist. 

I still vividly remember my first experience with fire. I was about 5 or maybe 6 years old. I had always watched, fascinated, as older people would light a match to cook or for some other reason and I was so intrigued by the process that I wanted to light a match too. I had tried to do it a couple of times but there was always someone who found me and took the match away from me; it always felt like they were stopping me from playing the play that I wanted to play and "enjoying" myself. 

One particular evening, I decided to try again to play with the matches. That day there was no one to stop me.

You see the thing about lighting a match, there's a right and a wrong way to light it, but 5 abi 6 year old me didn't know that, all I knew was that you used the brown part of the matchstick to scratch the sides of the match box and fire would come out. What I hadn't noticed was that when everyone was lighting a match, they typically would strike the match away from their body. In all my excitement and resolution to light the match before dem go catch me stop me, I struck the match toward myself, I no need tell you for you to know say e burn me. 

Of course I cried! And after that incident I developed an unhealthy fear of fire and the next time I lit a match was in JSS 1 and even then it was because I didn't see anyone to help me light the fire, believe me when I tell you that it took years of striking a match for me to overcome that fear.  

The thing I didn't understand when I was fascinated with the concept of lighting a match was that everytime my mother or some other adult stopped me from lighting the match, they weren't doing to stop me from having fun, rather they were trying to protect me from doing something that would harm me, but of course I been too stubborn to leave the matter alone and the result? I got burned. 

Now it's really easy to say "children and their curiosity sef", and you won't be wrong to say that, but how many times have you acted like little Achenyo that was struggling to light a match? There are a lot of times when we're trying to do things and God is telling us to stop but as "omni-knowest" wey we dey like feel  like say we be sometimes, we decide that we definitely have more understanding of the distinct features of our 'peculiar' situation thus, we should be allowed to handle the situation by our incredible ingenuity. But here's what the Bible says about the way that seems right to a man, the Bible tells us that "...eventually it ends in death" (Proverbs 14:12b, GW). Simply put, that thing that I want to do and I think I'm smart or strong enough to do it on my own without God, it will end in death! 

The devil is sha a smart guy: he will have you feeling like the matter in question isn't one that needs God's serious intervention, so even when God is repeatedly telling you "No", you will arrogantly assume that it's alright for you to continue on the path that you've decided on, that's what he did with Eve in Genesis 3 and we all know how that turned out.

Sometimes the problem isn't even with the thing you want to do, it would be something that is alright to do, the problem would be with the timing. Striking a match and lighting fire is of course not an inherently bad thing, but for a 5 or 6 year old? That's not the time to begin to light fires. Sometimes all God is telling us is "wait", "at the right time I, the Lord, will make it happen" (Isaiah 60:22b, GNT). Getting a good gift a the wrong time is as bad as getting a bad gift and that is what God tries to prevent when He tells us to leave our own way and wait, so that when the thing we're wanting comes, it would have come in the best way to be of the greatest blessing to us.  But we're much too eager most times and we're looking for our own ways to "make it happen" for ourselves, and as we've established already, it's going to end in death for us. 

And of course there's the temptation to quicky think of all the other times you've done things your own way and outside of God's "OK" and you want to justify your actions by saying "but nothing happened." Make I shock you? Something did happen! Na just say the thing wey happen no happen the way you go quick see notice say something happen. Yes you didn't fall down and die but something died! And sometimes that thing stays dead for years before you even realize that it is dead because the death that occured wasn't physical. 

You know the really interesting thing about allowing God lead you and not trying to do things the way you think it should be done? God already sees the end! He alone knows the outcomes both of sticking it out with Him and of going your own way; from the beginning of a venture, He can tell you it's end (Isaiah 46:10a). There's no gamble in God, what He says is the way it would happen is certainly the way it would happen; so when He tells you to stop or wait concerning a matter, obey! He already knows what's ahead and all the heartache and punishment you'll be avoiding by obeying Him while you on the other hand would only be guessing possible outcomes and "hoping for the best" –that what you're doing will not backfire, which it always eventually would. I recently read someone sharing how he had unwittingly made a habit of learning from disobedience and it wasn't until God admonished him on that account that he realized what he had been doing. As I read that, I realized that I had also made a habit of learning from my disobedience, so when God tells me to do something, I would sometimes ignore His instructions and do wetin concern me and when it backfires, I'll begin to 'learn from my mistakes and move forward.'

But I, and you, do not need to learn like that. I can simply obey Him and learn the fruit of obedience to God, it doesn't always have to be negative now does it?

Don't be like little Achenyo, stay away from the fires God has told you about, your way no sure at all! Obey God and you'll enjoy Him. 

See you next week. 

Love,

Achenyo. 

PS. No use Christmas as excuse to sin o!