Article of Faith: Idol worship (2), By Femi Aribisala

If God is with us, why do we fear? 

Sometimes we pray to fulfil all righteousness. And after we have prayed, we come back to our senses and have panic attacks.

A lady’s son was going back to the United States from Nigeria. He had an American passport and a Nigerian passport simultaneously.  He came in with his Nigerian passport, which meant that he did not get a Nigerian visa.  But if he tries to leave with his Nigerian passport, they would require him to show a visa for his destination, the United States.   

That meant he would have to show his American passport. But dual nationality had been suspended in Nigeria.  If he showed his American passport, they would ask him how he got into the country without a Nigerian visa. 

It was a “Catch 22” situation. So, she took the matter to God and asked for help. Then she went to the airport with her son. But on getting there she had a panic attack. She started looking for other gods to help her.  Perhaps there is somebody that she knows? Perhaps if she talks nicely to the immigration official? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.   

But what does the word of God says?

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7).

But this lady was anxious about everything, and she had no peace. Finally, the Holy Spirit spoke: “Did you not ask Me for help?  So why are you still anxious?” 

Suddenly, she stood there in the airport terminal apologising to the Holy Spirit. She had scarcely finished praying her apologies when someone called her name. 

“Professor Ogwu is that you?” 

She looked up to see this distinguished military officer standing in front of her and smiling at her. 

“What are you doing here?” he asked. 

“My son is travelling to the United States.” 

“Where is he?” the man asked taking charge. 

He took charge so completely that he ushered him past immigration and literally on to the plane. Problem solved.

When Joy told her husband what had happened, he was unimpressed. “It was just a coincidence,” he insisted. 

Coincidence my foot! God is not a coincidental God.

Babalawo Option

At other times, we are so worried we cannot even pray. 

“Pastor, I have been so worried, I have not been able to pray.”

It could be because you don’t believe in prayer anyway.  Maybe you only pray to fulfil all righteousness.  Otherwise, I fail to understand why a man would refuse to pray when he is in trouble.  It is like falling off a cliff and hanging by a shrub and refusing to cry out for help.  Maybe you are convinced that no help would come in any case.  

 If there ever were a time to pray, it is in time of trouble. God says:

“Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.” (Psalms 50:15).

My brother had left the country unannounced.  For years we did not know where he was. But one day my Aunty who is a Christian came with a wonderful suggestion. 

“I am not saying that God is not powerful,” she said, starting on an apologetic and defensive note. “But what I am saying is that sometimes we need to mix things with our own native and local abracadabra.” 

Her suggestion was that we should go to the “babalawo” (the voodoo man or fortune teller), who would be sure to tell us exactly where Bayo was.  Her logic was impeccable: God sometimes needs local help.

But the message of the bible is without ambiguity:

“Why are you trying to find out the future by consulting witches and mediums? Don’t listen to their whisperings and mutterings. Can the living find out the future from the dead? Why not ask your God?” (Isaiah 8:19).

A god who needs help is not God.  A god who needs help does not deserve our worship.  When man decides to help God, he ends up with Ishmael and not with Isaac.  When man decides to help God, he arrogates himself as God and sometimes ends up dead, like Uzzah, who tried to help the ark from falling down.  When a man decides to help God he is likely to end up with a lorry-load of problems. 

That is how people get children from the god of the river and start eating the bread of sorrows.  That is how people make deals with the devil, get rich quick and within a short time the god of mammon receives them into his everlasting habitations.

Man-made Gods

The bible says “casting down imaginations.” God is not a God of our imagination. We do not serve an imaginary God. We serve a God who is real and who is true. We should not presume anything about him. 

We cannot know God by reason or thinking. His ways are not our ways; his thoughts are not our thoughts.  We can only get to know God through the bible. The word of God says: “I am the way the truth and the life, no one can get to the Father except by me.”

“You shall have no other gods before me.”  

But I thought there was only one God, so how can I have another god when there is only one? 

Men are very creative.  We are specialists God-creators.  We prefer to worship a God who is created in our own image and likeness.  We prefer a God of our own imagination.  We don’t have time to get to know the one true God.  In any case, the one true God is a “hard man.” He is not the God we want.

“Why don’t you like Me,” asks God?  “What did I do to drive you away?  What iniquity did you find in Me that turned you against Me?” (Jeremiah 2:5).

It wasn’t that we found iniquity in Him, but that He would not allow us to do the things that we want to do.  We needed to get away from Him, so that we could live our own lives by our own rules. We needed to get away from Him so that we, and not He, could be the god of our lives.

When God finally showed up in the person of Jesus Christ, we did not like Him.  He came unto His own, His own received Him not.

All our lives, we have dealt with men and they have disappointed us.  We have dealt with men, and they have lied to our face. We have dealt with men, and they have betrayed us. We have dealt with men, and they have deceived us.

Many have even used God to deceive us.  Many use the name of God to defraud us.  Many swear by God and then stab us in the back.  So, when it comes to dealing directly with God, we become hostages of our past.  But we need to remember one thing.  God is not a man even though He became man. 

“God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfil?  (Numbers 23:19). 

Let God be true even if all men were liars. Jesus can never fail us; He can never disappoint us.

Spirit of Fear

Worries. Anxieties. Problems. If God is with us, why do we fear? Why are we lonely? Why are we sad? Why are we anxious? Why are we troubled? If Jesus is in the boat, why should we be afraid of perishing? 

The answer is simple. We fear because we don’t know Him. We fear because we don’t really believe in Him. But eternal life is in the knowledge of God. Without trust we cannot please God.

Is God not enough?  God says don’t worry and we are still worried. Is there any other reassurance that we need?  If God cannot reassure us and we keep our peace, then tell me who can?

Dear God, I thought everything would be smooth sailing because I have You. But things were getting worse and worse. “God, you deceived me,” cried Jeremiah. “You said You would defend me, so why am I here in this dungeon?” 

John the Baptist experiences a similar crisis of faith. “Are You really the Messiah,” he asked Jesus.  Or should we look for another?” If you are really the Messiah, why should I end up in prison for doing Your work?

“My case was different,” said one of my parishioners. “I was a faithful servant. I really waited for God. But He kept me waiting forever. I simply had to do something before it was too late.” 

I could not but sympathise with the fellow. The problem with God is that He always takes too long.  Where was He all this time? Where was He when all those problems were piling up?  “I had told God I could only wait for Him until eleven o’clock. After eleven o’clock, I had no choice but to look for other options.”

We have other options because we have other gods.  We have gods as insurance policies.  We have gods as fallback positions. Just in case God fails to act let me not be entirely godless.  But God is never late with people who truly put their trust in him. And he that believes never makes haste. (Isaiah 28:16).

Faribisala@yahoo.com; www.femiaribisala.com