The Transformation of character

Written by Rev Sam Adeyemi

I read in the newspaper of an SS3 student who led an armed robbery gang, when he was asked why he robbed, he answered that when he wanted to take his SS3 examination he could not find money to pay the examination fees, he watched his mates write the examination. He was offered a space to repeat SS3 and he said, from the way things were going he will not afford to pay for the examination, yet his mates were riding expensive cars on the street.

According to him, there was so much unfairness in the country. Wealth is distributed unfairly, so he decided to take it out on the rich by forming an armed robbery gang.

That is the state of our nation, a country with all its natural and human resources sits on the brink of destruction. Not that it lacks wealth but just that it has lost its moral compass. In the last decade we have seen the destruction and erosion of values that have guarded us as a nation and that could make our success possible. We must address corruption from its roots. I do not see a corrupt political system solving the problem of corruption anywhere. The only institution that is capable of solving the corruption in our country is the Church. It is all about the heart of man. A good man from his heart brings good things; an evil man from his heart brings evil things. I do not see an educational system being able to bring forth such corrections to our hearts. Jeremiah 17:9 describes the capacity of human spirit to create and invent destruction and evil, it says “the heart of man is deceitful above all is desperately wicked who can know it”.

Man's heart has the capacity to create beauty and ultimate glory, also, man's heart has the capacity to invent evil of all kinds and dimensions.

Man loses his capacity for glory when he takes God from the place that belongs to Him in the human heart. Sometimes man does not enjoy the control that God brings unto his life. When he gives God his place, God exercises lordship over his life and he does not like that, so he takes God out and replaces himself. Initially, men believed that the earth was at the centre of the universe, everything revolved around it until it was proven otherwise that sun is at the centre of the universe and gives light to other bodies that revolves around it. The Sun represents God.

When man chooses not to revolve around God, or not to take life from him, he is lost and that is the state of mankind. When God is taken out of man, he malfunctions like a faulty computer.

The depth of emotional fulfillment that God has provided for man is amazing. When they are all lost, then we must find a way to satisfy those needs or the needs for those emotions is what leads man to all do all kind of evil.

Apostle Paul said “they had to satisfy the cravings of their bodies and began to lust against one another”. Any society that takes God out of His place will give in to sexual immorality because sex is one of the strongest emotions known to man. So sex is glamorized like drugs or any of those things that give artificial fulfillment. If we do not give God his own place, we have to invent those things that will keep us happy.

When we cannot get the kind of fulfillment that God provides, we overvalue material things and this leads to covetousness. We desire more cars, houses and money in our bank account. The more we desire material things is proof that we are spiritually sick. There is no amount of sex or material possession that will fill the gap when you take God out. There is need for change and it has to be now.

Until we change inside, we cannot change outside see Matthew 23:25 for the words of Jesus on this.

When it comes to change of heart, no human being can do it. What slows us down on our path of transformation is our denial, we are hypocritical and pretentious. The church is not left out. Though we are born again; the capacity of the human spirit to fumble is still there. We refuse to tell ourselves the truth about our areas of weakness and ask God for help. Even in the law court when an accused person quickly admits his/her wrong and pleads for leniency, the judge tends to be merciful. We need to learn to be genuinely remorseful, these are not the way things should go, we are not meeting God's standard and need to ask God for the change to start with us.

With God, obedience is better than sacrifice, when we ask God for help he will definitely lend a hand. It is my prayer that this environment will not corrupt you or your destiny. Your testimony will be Rom 6:14; sin shall not have dominion over you. The fear of the Lord is to depart from evil; we need to restore the fear of God.

What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? Mark 8:35.