Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha
Contentions start with words, snowball into the
strife of tongues and escalate to fisticuffs and who knows what next – sorcery
as in the case of Moab, murder as in the case Cain and Abel, Joseph and his
brothers, Daniel and the satraps, Haman and Mordecai.
Isaac avoided contentions. Rather than contend with
the Philistines who closed up the wells dug by his father, he dug new wells and
when the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen over the new wells,
Isaac and his herdsmen dug other wells and when there was no more contention
over the new well, Isaac named the new well ‘Rehoboth’ meaning God has made
room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.
Contention is the forerunner to strife and strife slows
down, hinders, or completely stops progress and development. Isaac understood
this and avoided contention in any form. He left Gerar when out of envy at his
prosperity, Abimelech and his people asked him to leave. He did not contend
over anything with them. He took what he had and left and when later Abimelech
and his people came to ask for forgiveness, he forgave them and ensured that
peace reigned between them.
When the enemy deploys the tool of contention to
generate strife, it is for the purpose of fighting to stop the plans and
purposes of God – recall the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem in the book
of Ezra, the rebuilding of the broken down walls of Jerusalem in the book of
Nehemiah, the strife between the herdsmen of Lot and Abraham. Rather than contend,
Abraham separated from Lot and immediately he did so, God showed him the
greatness He had for him.
Beloved, run away from contentions! It is a tool the
enemy always deploys to advantage if a person is not sensitive to the Holy
Spirit.
The Pharisees and Sadducees deployed it severally
against Jesus Christ but failed severally – should Christ heal on the Sabbath
day, should the woman caught in the very act of adultery be stoned to death,
whose wife would the woman who had married seven brothers be at the
resurrection, etc, everything designed to cause strife and confusion; and stop
the work of Jesus Christ.
But Jesus Christ always discerned their intents and
stopped them right in their tracks. The same tool was deployed against the Apostles
and the early Church. Fortunately, the lead campaigner of the opposition was
converted. Though he experienced the deployment of this tool against his
ministry, he was divinely endowed with wisdom to counter their every move until
he eventually settled in Rome from which he preached the gospel after his first
and second missionary journeys.
Do not allow the devil and any of his cohorts drag
you down and create backward movements for you through contention and strife.
Instead keep moving forward. Do no party in the stagnant waters of contention
and strife. Stagnant waters do not flow anywhere, are never fresh, do not breed
life giving substances but disease causing substances like mosquitoes etc.. Who
then needs stagnant waters? People who are opposed to progress and development!
Therefore, avoid, run away from contentions.
Finally, you do not need strife and contention. Walk
away from it quickly before it bogs you down. Remain in Success Street. Shalom.
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