sundayword:BY PROSPER TINGINI
Many different views have been pronounced in answer to the problems bedeviling our motherland. All opinions should be put together, looked at and acted upon wherever possible. Let’s not ignore any advanced suggestions that may assist us as a nation to identify and eliminate that which is the cause of our afflictions. Talking about our problems and the probable causes and not doing anything to correct the wrongs is our major problem. There is a lot of talk with no accompanying action. Our inaction is the affliction itself. I hold the view that some of our national problems emanate from the neglect and abandonment of our religiousness, be it of our cultural or Christian values. Both are the foundations of our humanity (ubuntu/hunhu).
I have marvelled at how some of God’s words of warnings to mankind have been turned into national prayers among the Christian fraternity in Zimbabwe. Simply praying by repeating the Lord’s words of warning to us without us doing that which He requires of us to do, is of no benefit as it is just a reminder. It is like giving out a prescription which the patient refuses or ignores to take. There is no cure to it. The cure comes from doing exactly that which is prescribed, doing what the Almighty wants us to do. That should be the format of what our national prayers. Let us follow up on God’s prescriptions to redeem ourselves and our nation, and act upon them.
This is one of God’s warnings to us which is now almost like a national prayer (2 Chronicles 7:14): “If My people who are called by My name humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins and heal their land.” Simply narrating this warning does not help us. Doing that which the Lord wants us to do, and turning those requirements into our daily prayers is what is required. The question that we should be asking ourselves is: “What is it that the Lord wants us to do?” When we find the answers and do them, then we will redeem ourselves and the nation.
The answers for what we should do for the Lord are there in the scriptures, written in black and white. The rewards for doing that which He prescribes us to do are also spelt out very clearly, one after another. Leviticus 26:3-12 prescribes and gives specific rewards for adherence to God’s prescription. It reads: “If you walk in My statutes and observe My commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its produce and the trees of the fields shall yield their fruit. And your threshing (harvests) shall last till the time of vintage and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing. You shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none will make you afraid; I will rid the land of evil beasts, and the sword will not go through your land. You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight, your enemies shall fall by the sword before you. For I will look on you favourably and make you fruitful, multiply you and confirm My covenant with you. You shall eat the old harvest and clear out the old because of the new. I will set my tabernacle among you, and My soul shall not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.”
Zimbabwe is a chosen nation. Just like the Jews who often disobeyed the Lord and were on numerous occasions abandoned by the Almighty because of their sins, we the people of Zimbabwe find ourselves in the same shoes because of our sins, as a chosen people. In my future writings, I will give reasons why Zimbabwe is a chosen nation of God. There are many clues to it. Our own God-given culture was solidly built around the statutes of our Heavenly Father. By abandoning some of our holy cultures, we also have ignored the commandments of the Lord. The current state of our nation is as a consequence of our own neglect of our Godliness.
We cannot continue to live in a state of abandonment of the instructions of the Lord our God, of our culture and religion. As already mentioned above, this is what happened to the children of Israel many times for over thousands of years. We are scattered all over the world as happened to them. We have to regroup and honour the statutes of the Lord our God, and His judgements.
I shall commit the last part of this article to quote in full the consequences of our inaction to the Lord’s warning, as a reality of what is already happening to our nation; which desperately needs salvation. Quoting small verses sometimes does not give adequate education to reflect the magnitude of issues.
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This is what the Lord said about the consequences of a partial obedience (Leviticus 26:14-46): “But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all the commandments, and if you despise My statutes, or if your souls dislike My judgements, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, I will also do this to you: I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set my face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies.
“Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you. And after this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times for your sins. I will break the pride of your power; I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. And your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.
“Then, if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring seven times more plagues, according to your sins. I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number; and your highways shall be desolate. . . . . . ”
Our Zimbabwean history follows this pattern. Our land was taken away from our forefathers by enemies. We lay desolate until we regrouped and reclaimed our land through the Chimurenga Wars. Now we are going into enemy lands begging for aid, with our children scattered abroad, numerous diseases among us, the persistent droughts and confusions among ourselves.
l Prosper Tingini is the scribe of the Children of God Missionary Assembly — God’s Messengers. Contact details: Mobile/whatsapp 0771 260 195. Email address: [email protected]
