I WILL ARISE………. LUKE 15:11-32 – PART 1

I gave my life to Christ less than 20 years ago. When I started the journey, my zeal was so strong that I could preach to anybody anywhere. I'm sure it’s relatable to many of us. It was a sweet experience living for Christ alone in my secondary school days. I was fully involved with Scripture Union and the school fellowship because I was in the boarding house. Although I struggled with some sinful habits at the beginning, God helped me to overcome them. I went to several places for the gospel, led many Sunday School and Bible study sessions, and ministered at several Christian events. I even remember starting the first Acapella group in my secondary school. There's this kind of joy that comes into one’s life when you newly accept the life of Christ Jesus. I remember an occasion when I preached to a family friend with so much zeal. It was like I wanted to force him to receive Christ. He almost got angry but we later resolved it and he’s now a believer. I always look for every opportunity to preach in buses or cabs, pray with passengers, and also preach to them when I use public transport. The salvation experience for me was a good one. I grew up as a young man who had issues with my speech like Moses in the Bible. God settled it for me and I could preach in the bus and everywhere I had the opportunity. After some time, things went wrong and the zeal reduced. I struggled for years and it was difficult to return to my first love, although I was still committed to the things of God. This is the main issue most of us face. We are so proud to return to God after backsliding. It was difficult for me to return, because of pride, asking myself what people will say. How will the brethren who have been looking up to me feel? Like the prodigal son who wandered away for a very long time, messed up, and failed in so many ways, he needed to move forward and had to return to his father. So many times we fall into sin. When we do, we must rise from our sinful state to be better Christians. We are all going to face one temptation or the other (James 1:12-15). We also need to know that the higher we go in life, the higher the temptation we'll face on our journey to Heaven. Every temptation is meant to make us stronger in faith. The solution to getting out of sinful habits you have gotten yourself into is not suicide. If you kill yourself, you are only preparing your journey to hell. An adage in Yoruba says “Ogun ori fifo, ko ni ori bi be”. It means the cure for headaches is not cutting off the head. You cannot pray against temptation or bind temptation. The only thing you can do is to pray for the grace to overcome every temptation that comes your way and also decide and determine to live right. Shall we continue in sin and claim to enjoy grace? Thank God for the sufficient blood of Jesus that washes our sins away. If we were all given a particular quantity of the blood to wash us from our sins, some of us would have even exhausted it. But Jesus is never tired, even with the fact that you have fallen and risen so many times, all He is concerned about is your repentance. The more trials and temptations you overcome, the higher you go. But we must not be deceived. When we fall into sin, we are not supposed to remain there. We are supposed to rise and tell the devil I will not remain here, I'm moving up. Rise high above sins and become a better Christian. I remember when Peter was sinking in the sea and he had to be helped by Jesus. Jesus reached out to him because he wasn't too proud to receive help. God doesn't only despise the proud, but the proud cannot receive help or learn. This is because the proud believes he or she is the best and doesn't need help from anyone to get better. Don’t allow pride to kill you in your sinful habit. When the prodigal son realized he had failed, he told himself that his present location wasn't where he belonged. So he said “I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him; Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants” Luke 15:18-19. The prodigal son did something I respect. He wasn't looking for an opportunity to return to his father’s house as a son, what was more important to him was remaining under the father’s cover. He wouldn't mind becoming his father’s servant. This is humility at the highest level. I am sure so many things would have gone through his mind before he made that decision that changed his life forever. Some of us have allowed sin to hold us to a position for a very long time. Especially because of the shame of people knowing you have been wallowing in sin. Like the prodigal son, arise and return to your maker now. One important lesson we need to learn is that when we backslide as believers, our value in Christ Jesus is kept (it wasn't lost). Immediately we realize our sinful ways and decide to return, our value becomes reactivated and we begin to enjoy our Christian living as we should. To be continued… AYODEJI ANIFOWOSE Twitter: @gfatherghusband Instagram: @gfather_ghusband, @ayodeji.anifowose Facebook: www.facebook.com/greatfathergreathusband, www.facebook.com/ayodeji.anifowose E-mail: ayollc.company@gmail.com www.ayodejianifowose.com