What Christians Should Do While Suffering – Abuja Cleric

Christians everywhere should envision bringing forth the glory and purpose of God in whatever difficult circumstances they find themselves, Pastor Deji Laoye has said.

Delivering the sermon at the Hospital Chapel, National Hospital Abuja, Laoye encouraged believers to project how they can bring forth God’s purpose, especially in leading others to Christ when they suffer.

Speaking on the topic, Hope Maketh Not Ashamed, Laoye, an Air Vice Marshal pointed his congregation to the attitude of the Christians who were subjected to persecution in Jerusalem after the departure of Jesus.

Quoting Acts 8:4, “But the believers who were scattered preached the Good News about Jesus wherever they went,” the cleric said that despite losing their homes and property at the onset of the persecution that the Christians did not go about lamenting their losses but that they rather put focus on preaching the Good News.

“You can imagine that those brethren had lost things but they did not focus or go about telling what they lost, but rather, were sharing the good news.”

In that vein, Pastor Laoye charged believers to see every opportunity of distress as an opportunity to do the work of God.

Noting how when he was once briefly hospitalised he said that he asked God what should he be doing there? According to the cleric he said that he saw it as an opportunity to preach to some other fellows in the hospital ward.

That vision of working out the purpose of God at all times, Bro Laoye said, was on the basis of the fact that the primary purpose of Jesus on earth was to redeem men from sin.

In a tone that is bound to be controversial for some, Laoye said that Jesus did not come to make people rich but that he came with the primary purpose of saving men from their sins.

“Till today, if you quantify Solomon’s wealth you may not be able to compare.

“The reason Christ died was because of iniquity that was the primary reason for Christ’s death. We need to have that understanding that the purpose Christ died should not be in vain,” Pastor Laoye said.

Noting technological developments over the ages to the emergence of smart homes, Laoye, however, affirmed that the character of men has remained unchanging.

With a sense of humor he referenced a song rendered by the children with the refrain “I wanna go to heaven” which he contextualised as part of the evolvements in linguistic expansionism.

While encouraging the congregation to as such look up with hope to redemption, he said that God also has hope and expectation from men. As such, the preacher said that men as individuals have a part to play just as God has played His part in the sacrificial grace offered by the blood of His son, Jesus, the Christ.

“The first thing of this hope is being justified in Christ, so if you are not born again you cannot have this hope.

The man of God thus charged his audience to embrace the love of God as shed through the blood of Jesus as he quoted Isaiah 1:18

“There is a part that God plays and there is a part for everyman to also play in the work of grace.”

AVM Laoye said that the pursuit of this hope must be with a single focus as he expressed surprise with many Christians who despite professing God also indulge the flesh by relishing reality shows that exhibit waywardness.

“If your eyes be single, your body will be full of light but if your eyes be double it will be full of darkness,” as he observed that watching films that pollute the spirit negate the desire of the spirit.

He shared the anecdote of a young lady who told her mother she wanted to go and watch an ungodly film. According to the preacher, the mother of the lady then brought garbage and poured into the food the girl was about to eat.

As her daughter questioned her on her action, the mother relayed to her that pouring garbage into the food was symbolic of her going to watch a dirty film that would pollute her spirit.

Reading from Romans 5:3-4, Pastor Laoye said that nobody becomes a master of the seas in calm waters, saying” it is only when you enter turbulent waters and you are able to navigate you can prove that you are a master.”

He then charged Christians to see every troubled water as an opportunity to shine for God and bring forth a testimony.

“Whatever challenges we are going through in life we should look about and see what it is that God would have us do in that situation,” the man of God said.

Concluding with the story of Job he referenced Job 23:10 asserting that for Job it was not a matter of attracting gold to himself but of turning to gold himself.

He as such asked his congregation to see how they can turn into gold and become valuable to those around them.

“It is you that God wants to be gold. But many men do not know this, and so keep going to pack gold from God not knowing that they are supposed to be gold.”

GWG.ng reports that the service was interspersed with worship, prayers and renditions by the children who were prayed for ahead of the Children’s Day by the presiding pastor, Elder Godwin Idowu.

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