19 July 2008
MY prayer is for President Mwanawasa to receive favour from the Lord in Jesus' name. Fellow citizens, this is not time for finger-pointing and character assassination. It is a very unique time, a time of prayer and silence so that we can see, and listen from God (Habakkuk 2:1-2).
This is a time when a national leader is overshadowed. His friends, relatives and some of the immediate family members are kept away from him. During such moments, we really need to stand and pray so that no room is given to the evil to take advantage of this national suffering and depression.
It is human that when a member of a family, a close friend or even a neighbour faces serious illness, we begin to think of uncertainty and shortness of life. King Ezekiah was at one time faced with a similar situation in the book of Isaiah 38. He prayed to God hopefully because he did not want the devil to raise his voice against God.
In Psalm 39:1, King David also during a similar situation prayed to God: "O Lord, show me my life's end and the number of my days". He meditated always on God and so gave no room to the devil.
However, his worries about his life distressed him very much and he burnt like fire within himself; and so he prayed. David was not up to knowing his exact life span, but the reality of the shortness of life.
James, in Chapter 4: 14 says: "Why do you not know what will happen tomorrow? What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."
If President Mwanawasa was to be asked what he looks for now, and in what he has confidence and trust, he knows he must answer that his hope is in the Lord; the only one who never changes, who can always be trusted, and who will never leave those that trust in Him (Psalm 125).
We should not protest against God but just intercede for our President within the will of God Himself. Now listen citizens, There must be a revelation first, and then intercession so that we do not pray amiss. This time the nation needs to pray and be silent in the face of what God is doing and has done.
Psalm 40:11-15 says "even if we have known the steadfast love and saving hand of God, life does not proceed smoothly".
Job 5:7 also says "Man is born to trouble, as surely as sparks fly upwards. Sometimes these troubles are highly numbered than the hair of our heads," but this must be the time of holding tight to the cross.
The first family is in anguish, sorrow and discouragement, and our role as Zambian citizens is to encourage them through prayer as in Psalm 42:4-5. We must not allow hopelessness to destroy their faith altogether.
They are lonely in thought and despair in heart, they are disheartened because they are far away from their homeland and their dwelling place. They love their country and their people but the dark shadow in their family keeps them away from home. God grant them solace!
As a believer, I know that there is a system in every kingdom and that it is God-ordained. I also know that to every king there is a successor lying somewhere under God's hand.
Life is in phases and so leadership goes, even our country Zambia's leadership is under God's hand of direction.
It is very important for our Zambian leaders to understand that democracy is a human-political creation, just like all other political systems; but at the heart of all such systems is the question of the correct way to exercise political authority.
The declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation was to stop moving by the wind and start listening from God for the direction of this nation. This was a word of prophecy. Stop rushing, listen to God!
He is in motion right now and He has already revealed the truth of the matter to His prophets.
All leadership is God-ordained and He has full control over it, and before anything pertaining to the nation happens, God reveals His secrets unto His servants the prophets.
MARY LUSAMBO NDHLOVU
Lusaka
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