“DO NOT LET YOUR GOD ON WHOM YOU RELY DECEIVE YOU…” (2 Kgs 19:10)

⏰Tuesday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time 2 (23 June 2020)

📖2 Kgs 17:5-8, 13-15a, 18; Ps 60:3, 4-5, 12-14 (R.v.7a); Matt 7:1-5

🎤”DO NOT LET YOUR GOD ON WHOM YOU RELY DECEIVE YOU…” (2 Kgs 19:10)

Hey! I hope you can already see that those words were not exactly mine. They were copied right from the scripture. Well, for some time, I have been having the same thought. So, it is not accidental that I picked it up as my theme for reflection today.

Some years ago, I had a bitter experience that really put my faith to the test for a very long time. A man who was very close to me was sick and he wasn’t having enough strength to talk but when I came in, he said, Fada! Welcome! Wao! I felt on top of the world because I was earlier told he wasn’t recognising people anymore… Hmmmm! The wife told me that he was improving greatly since that day. We were happy. When I was praying for him, he joined us in singing praises to God. Less than four hours later, I was informed that he died… My faith instantly died with him! Yes, it was dead! But not after I looked at this passage of the scripture (2 Kgs 19:9ff).

Do you know the person that uttered the above abomination? One king of Assyria, Sennacherib, who felt that he was wiser and more sensible than God!

Chai! Who had the voice that I was using to question God about my experience on the death of my friend? Could it be that it was the voice of Sennacherib? May God forbid that I should turn against him in lamentation.

Beloved in Christ, that was a typical voice from the crowd trying to deceive me. This voice normally opens us up to variety of options. Most of those options are negative ones which lead to doom. But Jesus is telling us today to follow the narrow gate into eternal life.

The key to that narrow gate has a sensor which was manufactured with faith, hope and love. So, in case the challenges in life has placed you in a difficult position which makes you to question the existence or the goodness of God, pray with faith and hope like Hezekiah (cf. 2 Kgs 19:14-19), and know that in time, your challenges will also know a miserable end as the Assyrians (cf. 2 Kgs 19:35).

May God grant us the grace to endure all the sufferings that come our way in the practice of our Christian faith so that we may remain on that road that leads to life till the end. Amen.

Have a grace-filled day ahead. Peace be with you.