“I Will Live By The Golden Rule!”

“I Will Live By The Golden Rule!”
We fasted and prayed in Lent 2016 and towards the end of the year came the Lawyers’ and Teachers’ strikes. Then came Lent 2017; we prayed and fasted for a quick solution. Rather we suffered schools’ boycott, arson and killings. By the time we prayed and fasted in Lent 2018 full-fledged armed conflict was going on.
We are fasting and praying in Lent 2019 in the midst of deserted villages, an ongoing scorched earth policy that has razed down more than a hundred villages. There is an on-going war taking the lives of hundreds amidst hundreds of thousands of IDPs and about a double score thousand refugees!
In this Lent season we may pretend prayer points which ignore the grim realities as we live it daily, or we may like God’s people of old ask, “Why have we fasted and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves and you have not noticed?”
It is because in Lent we fast and pray but do as we please. We exploit our workers. Our fasting does not only end in quarelling and strife, they begin with quarelling and strife!
God is very categoric on this, “You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high…”
The prescribed fast is, “to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke…to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, you clothe him…”
The results will be obvious: “Your Light will break forth like the dawn…Your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. THEN YOU WILL CALL, AND THE LORD WILL ANSWER; YOU WILL CRY FOR HELP, AND HE WILL SAY:’HERE AM I.'”(Isa. 58:1-9a).
My friend, what this means is that even though it is important for us to meet in worship for prayer during these forty days of Lent, still the solution to our problems is to return to the Lord by word and deed! It is to live by the golden rule so as to achieve a saner society: Do not do to others what you do not want them do to you!
Let us call things by their right names! When we pray that God should intervene in any situation, we must be ready for Him to use us. Let us cleanse the land of evil! Put down the arms and negotiate through dialogue so as to ensure justice and peace shall become ours!
Prayer: Lord, equip me with the Holy Spirit so that my prayer and fasting this Lent season should be action-oriented towards the golden rule. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!