Encomium
From the lower to upper class, poor to rich, Nigerians are groaning as the economy bites harder. With more people out of jobs than ever before, and more business troubled and collapsing, millions have lost hope, legions are desolate and in despair. Opportunistic crimes are taking on new dimensions and compatriots are inventing survival means as hundreds of thousands feel the pangs of hunger and hopelessness.
Everywhere we turn, tales of woes and unheard of scenarios are repeated.
So, where do we turn?
Millions are finding solace in religion, and checking their Bible and Koran, and more.
As the difficulties take on new form, we present some soothing Bible passages which teach us how to cope as President Muhammadu Buhari struggles to executes solutions to our many problems…
Proverbs 3:5-6
5 – Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
6 – in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Jeremiah 17:7-8
7 – “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.
8 – They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
Proverbs 16:3
3 – Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.
Isaiah 43:1-2
1- But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.
2 – When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
Psalm 143:8
8 – Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.
1 John 5:14
14 – This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
Psalm 91:1-2
1 – Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 – I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
James 1:6-8
6 – But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7 – For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
8 – A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
Psalm 121:1-8
1- I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
2 – My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
3 – He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
4 – Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5 – The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
6 – The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
7 – The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
8 – The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
Matthew 6: 25-34
25 – Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 – Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 – Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 – And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 – And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 – Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 – Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 – (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 – But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 – Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
– Joshua Shobiye for Encomium.ng
