MY SAMARIA MOMENT....

Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Phil 2:3. From the beginning of this year this verse has stuck with me and has constantly been on my mind. When this verse came alive for me I realised that Jesus Christ died not only for me on the cross of Calvary but he died for everyone (I mean I already knew this fact but it dawned on me in a clearer way) so if this is so, how are my better than the other person when Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for them too?. Even that person that has just one eye or one leg or some kind of deformity, I am not better than them because they were all made in the image of God, and even if I am saved and the other person is not saved it does not mean that I am better than the person because it is only by God’s grace that he has allowed me to know the truth. It’s not because of anything that I have done, or I am doing, it’s solely by His Grace, Hallelujah! Even as Paul said in Philippians 3; 12a not as though I have already attained, either were already perfect. I have not yet attained and it is he who endures to the end that will be saved Matthew 10; 22 so until I have finished my race here on earth I must continually be humble.

I am learning to esteem others better than myself even those who have not come to know the Lord because the person maybe faraway in the journey now and probably hasn’t found Jesus yet but it does not mean that the person will not find Jesus tomorrow, for all I know the person might be an Usain Bolt in the Spirit and overtake me. Everyone I see especially Christians is a potential Billy Graham because only God knows the person’s eternal destiny his/her mansion might be the biggest in heaven, God has the building plan in heaven that we know nothing about. I remember once a Pastor told us a story about one security man she met by the street she was passing through one night while she was being driven, she said when he said something to her that she immediately knew he was her Oga (Boss) in the Spirit, he didn’t say anything that implied it she just knew immediately by the Holy Spirit, but on the earth he is just a security man, wow what a revelation.

Many times we judge people by their appearance and even form an opinion about them in our minds, I have learnt that the only opinion that really matters is the opinion that God has about the person. The few times I have managed to know God’s opinion about someone I have been blown away by the magnitude of love that God has for them. I know that God really loves me and I also know that God really loves us all, God doesn’t joke with any soul, and God takes every soul very seriously so how dare I think or feel I am better than another human being.

It wasn’t a surprise for me when we started to prepare for the just concluded Woman Cry Out programme and my Pastor asked us to meditate on Romans 12:1-4 verse 3 states ‘For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man not to think of himself highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith’.  Obviously God really wants me to take this seriously I thought this is no coincidence. God was telling me Bukky you have to have a healthy view of yourself don’t think too highly of yourself and don’t think too low of yourself, so God how am I supposed to think of myself? Just have a sober judgement of yourself. How do we have a sober judgement of ourselves? We must always put the truth before us, we must know that we have strengths but that we also have weaknesses, and that we stand only as a result of His Grace and not as a result of our strengths we have nothing to boast about because everything comes from him the only thing we should boast about is in the cross Gal 6; 14 ‘For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ.’MSG

We must also not let our weaknesses make us feel less than we should, we must remember that we are prone to fail and we are sinners and rightly so that is why we need Jesus who replaces our weaknesses with his strengths , and that if we cling to Jesus he will help us. We must always remember that we were formed in the Image and the likeness of the King of all Kings the creator of the heaven and the earth the one who made the stars and the Galaxies and all that is, he made us and places a high value on us.