Being a Christian In Nigeria

“If Bill Gates were to walk into a Nigerian church and heard every single one of our prayers I bet he would be tempted to think he is God as I’m sure our prayer requests would be about the things we need…food, clothes, cars, houses, material things basically”. The voice of Olakunle Soriyan reeled off as he spoke and the words he spoke hit me to the marrow as it reminded me of conversations I have had one time too many with a few close friends.

I had been invited by a friend to his Church and Olakunle Soriyan, the guest speaker was speaking on renewing our minds as Christians to be able to effect positive change. I was glad that he was talking to Christians and I hoped everyone else saw the truth in his words as I did as my mind drifted to conversations I have had with friends about most Nigerians using God for material gains.

I personally think that most of us do not worship God because we love him and seek a relationship with him but because we need something, someone to hold onto, an elixir for the challenges that we are laden with. I’m in no way undermining the need for God and his ability to do all we want, what I’m saying is that maybe we have been conditioned by our environment – lack of the basic amenities, preachers who sell a God that wants to make you rich overnight and leaders who seem to be in a competition of who can leave the economy worse than they met it – to aspire for the messiah that will turn things around for us and since we seem to have ingrained in us an inability to change our circumstances by first accepting responsibility for the rot we are in, we have to dump it all on God.

I still remember asking a Christiant leader what message we would preach to most billionares who even give to nations including ours, seeing as Pastors sell the message of serving God so he will make you rich.

I have observed also that the major reason some of us fast for many days, do all night prayers, go to mountains to pray and bow down to 'men of God', taking all they say hook, line and sinker is because we have a gaping hunger first for survival and then for better than our ‘heroes past’ have handed to us and not really as a service to God.
If you doubt this, record the testimonies in Church next Sunday, they will be tales of those who got miracle cars, miracle monies, miracle jobs etal, testimonies told not to glorify God but to remind the other congregants that we are no longer in their league.
I am all for serving God and for giving as much as we can but sometimes I wonder if some of us would speak in tongues as loudly as we do, go to church as often as we do or even empty our accounts as willingly as we do (in hopes for a miraculous doubling or even quadrupling of the monies), if we were in a thriving economy with leaders who feel responsible to the people, a country where quality healthcare isn’t scarce or totally elusive and we didn’t have to pray for light and good roads.
If we would first renew our minds through the word, we will be able to shift from being seekers of things to lovers of our neighbours, thinkers, and seekers of knowledge that will effect change and bring the things we now seek.