Familiarity: Another devil’s Weapon

Have you ever longed for something! Have you ever really really desired to have something and then receive it finally as a gift and then somehow things turn around and you no longer hold in high regard that thing!

Let me elucidate;

You’ve heard of my laptop story. Stolen in 2018, I received a new one as a gift in 2020’s August. Now, I do not know what condition this new laptop was! It began blacking out within a month’s time.

It had hard drive errors time to time! It could take 6 hours to shutdown or get back on. I got ANGRY! Even after the first repairing—which was to reinstall the windows—failed to get it back in line.

The problem was bigger. The hard drive was faulty even if the PC was new. It required a brand new one. With a guarantee, I got a new one, but it wasn’t properly screwed back in!

Amidst a presentation, the PC crushed again! I was red faced! I wanted to hammer it completely! The problem was finally resolved, but God didn’t waste the pain.

He reminded me of how I had prayed for it. Two years, non stop giving thanks in advance. And one fault in it made me grow burgeoning veins on my temple, as steam gushed out my ears, regretting a beautiful gift such as it.

See, the devil likes making gifts you’ve cherished appear like trash. He makes you discredit them and then disannuls the power in each of them. Ingratitude follows. We suddenly are no longer happy with the gifts we received. We move on.

Pretty like the Egyptians who cried for a savior. Moses came, and rescued them, and then in the desert, they longed to return to Egypt just because of eating the same meal daily! They chose slavery over freedom just for food!

We are no different.

Maybe you’ve asked God for Isaac, and after 25 years you receive a child. Three weeks later, you are so irritated about changing diapers and the 1am rise ups! Your anger is subtly saying ‘How I wish that baby weren’t born!’ Just like that — you are indirectly reversing a prayer; which thankfully can’t be. . .but, the enemy is gaining!

It’s like receiving a gift of glasses, and throwing them down. Careful…you might end up cursing that baby with your whining!

You prayed for a husband. He came. But he doesn’t leave the socks where they are supposed to. A story is told of a pastor husband who didn’t enjoy showering until their fourteenth year of marriage. Many girls could have left already! But what if the year you leave—after— is the year he changes!

Others pray for a dream house. They eventually enter it, but it becomes too big when empty. Too vast to be cleaned! Ungratefulness and amnesia of prayers once said.

Perhaps the dream car you wanted you got. But its too fuel-consuming that you just let it park in the garage.

Look! We could go on and on but you have to make up your mind to be forever grateful for all God had given you.

Don’t get familiar with what you once prayed for! Don’t be ungrateful for what you once cried to have. Don’t forget the sadness you had to bear while in that situation. Let the joy of having achieved what you prayed for fill your heart & mind today.

Always know that by the time God grants what you desire, He has already aligned everything else that will be needed, whether the grace to stand, the grace to change diapers or the grace to pay fuel. He creates provision before the creature. He created the garden before He placed Adam there!

Also, know that your familiarity will affect your faith for the next miracle, or how the present miracle will turn out to be.

Ungratefulness will make you think the supernatural life you’re living is common, and forgetfulness of what God did the previous time will lengthen the time required for you to receive your next miracle!

Proverbs 14:4 Where no oxen are, the grain crib is empty, but much increase [of crops] comes by the strength of the ox.

Finally, get ready to get a bit discomforted by some things you pray for. I had to learn about softwares and sites when my computer broke. Parents have to baby proof the house and learn what not to and what to feed a baby! Remember if you want no oxen, the kraal will remain clean, but you’ll have no one to help you contour the garden. Getting a child means the kraal (your house) will be a mess sometimes.

Prepare mentally for that discomfort, but also know that God won’t give you more than what you can handle. Above all, have it at the back of your mind, that one of the enemy’s weapons is to make that which is good seem bad. He’ll make what’s important seem useless. He’ll make what’s good seem evil.

And then man will turn against his prayers, somehow, and live a backward life (feeling in the past like Egyptians) or settle for a life lower than what he was created for— ORRRRR— CURSE the very thing which he had prayed for, SPEAKING NEGATIVELY about it until it eventually dies!

May your conscience be awake! And your tongue bridled! Don’t lend it to the enemy!