“And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven”. Nehemiah 1:4
It’s
unpatriotic to curse your country rather than praying for it. We are expected
to grieve and mourn when things are not going well with our country. Patriotism
demands that we love the country of our origins. We cannot expect to prosper if
we hate our country.
It
is divine to reap whatever we sowed; it’s unfortunate that many citizens don`t
see anything good about their country. On daily basis, some people just wake up
and pronounce curses such as “It will not be good for Nigeria”; ‘Nigeria is
finished and nothing good will ever happen to the country”. Some people even
wish Mr. President dead.
We
should understand that there was never a time that the world was without
problems. It was even worse in the time past.
Several
times, God allowed bad things to happen so that people will retrace their steps
and come back to depend on Him.
When
the people of Israel from the tribe of Judah were in captivity in Babylon,
Nehemiah didn't insult the king of Judah or blame him for the troubles of
Judah. He knew that the problem was the result of the collective and individual
sins of the people. He therefore took it to prayer and asked God for
forgiveness of the people.
Nehemiah
did the following: First he
sat down and meditated about the problems of Judah. Second he wept sorely to
God and asked God to intervene. Third Nehemiah mourned for certain days. Fourth,
he fasted for days, and during the period of denial of self he prayed fervently
to God.
On
behalf of the people of Judah, Nehemiah reminded God of His covenant not to
destroy people but to have mercy on those who love him and observe his
commandments.
Are
we doing that as citizens of our respective nations? As a citizen, you owe your
country the duty to be responsible and sow the seed of unity if you want a good
country. Loving your country is non-negotiable.
The
problems we have in our respective countries are caused by citizens, and until
we understand that, we will not get the peace we are clamouring for.
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