By Pr Michael Kintu
Psalms 89:14 “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.”
Our Church elders are heralding the prophetic word over Uganda in this season; it is time for a visitation from the Lord, a time of renewal and refreshing as a nation.
I personally believe we needed this earlier, having come through two years of hardship, pain and extreme loss.
My experience
I had a shocking experience recently as I drove to office. I watched from a distance a group of young men offloading a truck full of bunches of matooke.
It was very early in the morning, so I suspected they had travelled the whole night.
Looking at them, I thought to myself these must be very hardworking people, worthy of the blessing of the Lord.
But as I watched them more, I observed something very disheartening. Each of them had a small sack next to their feet, and as they offloaded the bunches, they would pluck off some fingers and throw in their sacks.
Of course, this is just one of the areas in our society where there seems to be no end to injustice.
There are universities where students are paying for free marks, building sites where workers are stealing materials, fake goods on the market, expired medicines in drug shops, fuelling stations with dirty fuel that destroys our cars’ engines, and all the way to the high echelons of leadership where corruption is the new normal. Have we given up hope for redemption?
God is watching
Do you think God will look upon us favourably, while all is happening?
The Bible says in Psalms 24.1-2 that God owns everything and He watches the ways of men and measures the intentions of their hearts.
We cannot be so ignorant to think that no one gets to know what is going on in the dark.
There are consequences. And surely as night follows day, so will a day of reckoning come upon us.
We have not done well and each one of us needs to introspect about their actions. We have all been weighed and found wanting.
Return to God
The most appropriate action of the season is to come before the Lord in repentance. He is a God of justice and righteousness.
He will not simply look on as all this is happening. In this year of visitation, we need to return to the place of mercy, rend our hearts and ask God for mercy.
Hosea 6:1-2 says: “Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but He will heal us; He has injured us but He will bind up our wounds.
“After two days, He will revive us; on the third day He will restore us that we may live in His presence.”
God, in His mercy, will help us if we will change our ways. He says in Jeremiah 29:11 that He has good plans for us.
This is a good time to return to the Lord with a repentant heart, no matter what has happened in the past. We also need to stand in the gap for our nation.
This is a common phrase used to mean calling upon the name of the Lord to be merciful and gracious, and to look upon our nation with mercy instead of judgement.
God will hear our cry and heal our land. If we choose to simply feel bad about these things and not do something about it, trust me nothing will change.
Let me close off with an admonition from 2 Chronicles 7:14-16:
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
“Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.”
The ball is really in our court. We can choose to make this season count and those who will come after us will be thankful that we stood up to be counted in our finest hour.
I pray for those who have lost loved ones and those that have gone through deep pain.
I also pray that the Lord will help you reflect on this message at a personal level and like Nehemiah in the Bible, you will arise and do something different.
Blessings.
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