The Antidote...

I’ve heard it said before that as you get older, memories of your past become clearer.  These days I find myself recalling bits and pieces of my childhood. I clearly remember one traumatic visit from my father’s aged uncle. He had come to live with us in the city because he needed medical care that could not be provided for him in the village. His visit was very disturbing for us; our entire life practically shut down to accommodate the needs of a very sick old man. While I selfishly thought of the inconvenience of taking care of him, my parents worried endlessly if he would live or die. When he died, it was a more painful time for all of us; we had come to appreciate his frailty, his toothless grins and all the history of our village he shared with us in the 5 short months of his stay.

Since then, I have been afraid of shame, pain, sorrow, grief and tears. Those things that we never want to happen but happen nonetheless. Still fear has not hampered these emotions from touching my life from time to time. In my short life here on earth, I’ve been touched by pain, have shared grief and felt shame. I have also cried endless tears. In trying to deal with life’s unfriendly companions (as I call them), I have come to learn about antidotes.

An antidote counteracts, it is a remedy to something disagreeable. It derives from the greek word antididonai which literally means ‘given against’. For instance, many health specialist say jogging is an antidote to nervous tension, love is an antidote to hatred. What then would be an antidote to life’s unfriendly companions? In Luke 7 from verse 36, we meet the famed woman and her alabaster box. She knew shame for the bible said she had lived a sinful life. She shed tears that day when she came before the master and then what did she do? Jesus himself commended her saying ‘she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair..... she put perfume on my feet’. She found the antidote to her pain for from then on the master declared all her sins forgiven.

Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicle 20 also experienced fear. What courage it would have taken for him, a King, to let his subjects know that he was as afraid as they were of the impending attacks from other nations. Still his courage was not an antidote to his fear. Helplessly he confesses ‘we do not know what to do Lord, but our eyes are on you’. Again God responded to this plea assuring Jehoshaphat that the battle was the Lords. In verse 17 He said ‘Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you’.  Jehoshaphat also found the antidote to his fear.

What did they have in common? They both took a position at His feet, a posture of worship. That’s where they fought their fear and shame. That’s the antidote they found. And that antidote always counteracts shame, pain, grief, tears and fear.

In Ezekiel 36 God dictates His panacea for many of the ills we suffer. Maybe we have been looking for solutions in the wrong places, dealing emotionally with life’s unwanted companions. God’s approach is different. In verse 23 He declares “And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD,” says the Lord GOD, “when I am hallowed in you before their eyes”. This is the position to take. Again the posture of worship.

As we position ourselves, God says He will display His power in the nations. What else does Nigeria need, but a restoration of His awesome glory? And that’s not all. Here’s what He also says He will do:

Ø  I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.

Ø  I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols

Ø  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh

Ø  I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them (this one blows me away!!! Simply put, He will make it easy for me to obey Him).

Ø  I will call for the grain and multiply it, and bring no famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of your trees and the increase of your fields, so that you need never again bear the reproach of famine among the nations (another mind-blowing revelation, tell me how do you multiply increase?, its not bad English. It’s God’s word).

Ø  I will also enable you to dwell in the cities, and the ruins shall be rebuilt.... ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden; and the wasted, desolate, and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.... I will increase their men like a flock....Then they shall know that I am the LORD.

Aah! Position yourself then. Use the Antidote. Praise.