WORK OUT YOUR MIRACLE

After I finished secondary school, I went to stay with my sister who was then doing her national youth service in Kaduna. I followed her to work most times but on this day, I chose to stay back for some reason I can't quite remember. I like going through stuff... Books, photos, shoes, just anything especially when I'm bored. So on this day, I was quite bored and after searching through everything I could lay my hands on, I looked across the room and saw my sister's cherished doll lying in the corner.

This doll was very important to my sister, I think it was her favourite. It was in the form of a sleeping baby with a pillow attached to the head. Perhaps what made this doll even more special was the fact when it prayed. Oh yes, it would offer a prayer everynight at bedtime like a real human being. She was so proud of the doll. Wow! I, on the other hand, was super curious to know how this doll worked, what made it pray and all that. And there was no better time to know than when my sister was away and I was alone with it.

So I grabbed the doll and began to figure it out. After a while, I discovered it offered that prayer when it was pressed, somewhere around the belly. OK, but like the pathologically curious person that I was, I wanted to know what exactly was inside that belly that said that prayer when pressed. So I opened up the toy and discovered there was an electronic device inside. OK, but what powered it? Did it use a battery? What type of battery? After exploring the bottomless depths of my curiosity to my satisfaction, I coupled the device and placed it back inside the doll but when I pressed it, it refused to pray. Haba! I pressed again, and again it refused to make any sound. What mess did I get myself into?

"What am I going to do", I thought to myself. My sister was gonna return soon from work and she'll definitely press the doll at bedtime, and if it didn't say the usual prayer, she'll know I tempered with it. I was helpless but I then remembered that God always makes a way where there seems to be no way. At least I knew that much from one of our popular Christian songs, so I decided to pray and ask him to do a miracle. I closed my eyes and said, "God please, when I open my eyes, I will press the belly of this doll and when I press it, let it work in Jesus name. Amen". I offered the prayer and did exactly like I said I would do...hehe... Not even the slightest of sounds. What? I repeated the prayer, in fact the silence this time was like in a graveyard.

So, I got angry and took a screw driver, opened up the device in the doll and after a few minutes of careful troubleshooting, I discovered that one of the wires was not properly placed. I fixed it, coupled everything and pressed. The doll offered one of the most beautiful prayers I've ever heard. What a relief! I was excited and sad at the same time. I wasn't happy because I felt God didn't answer my prayer. I expected a miracle but it didn't happen, I had to work it out myself.

How wrong I was, God wouldn't do for me what he has already given me the wisdom and power to do. This is God's new way of performing miracles. The Bible says faith without works is dead. Also remember the story of Lazarus whom Jesus rose from the dead. Bible says that when Jesus came to the tomb which had a stone laid across the entrance, He said, "Take away the stone". Perhaps one who was capable of raising a dead man would have wished the stone away with a wave of his little finger but Jesus asked the young men to remove the stone from the entrance of the tomb because they could do it, while he did the resurrection - that which they were unable to do.

How often do we as individuals sit down and expect manna to fall from heaven, rather than step out into the street to look for our daily bread? How often do we surrender to defeat instead of thinking and finding solutions out of our predicament? How often do we attribute our failures to the will of God when actually we could have worked our way through God's grace which is already made freely available to us, into success? How often do we attribute illnesses to witchcraft and bad luck when all we need to do is to see a doctor or adhere to our prescribed medication? How often do we abdicate our responsibilities to God when all that is needed is the political will to strengthen our constitutionally provided democratic processes of government?

God's intelligent works through us are themselves miracles. It mustn't fall from heaven to be from God. Isn't it miraculous that you can pick up your mobile phone and speak to someone a world away? Isn't it miraculous that something as large as an Airbus A380 can fly? Isn't it miraculous, the anatomy and physiology of a human being? If even God had to bent down and soil himself in mud to create you, what are you waiting for? Get down, dig deep... It's time to work out a miracle for yourself, by yourself and that can only be possible through careful thought, ingenuous creativity and deliberate action.

Have a nice day ahead.

Excepts from my book, Steth Of Inspiration