Give Me!
Once upon a time two 13yr old boys decided to each ask their fathers for the key to their father’s brand new BMWs. They met together to agree which of their fathers was nicer, and which loved or cared about them the most. They were in JSS 3, and a lot of their classmates claimed to be able to drive, except them. Some of them also claimed to drive their fathers cars, but not them. It wasn’t good, they thought, they believed that the only way to sort things out, was to ask their fathers.
The first boy, whose name I’ll refer to as Chike, decided to ask his dad as well. He explained to his dad that he wanted to drive his fathers BMW, and that he was feeling very aloof as all his classmates were driving except him. His father laughed heartily and told him to go face his books, that when the time was right, they’ll sit down together and have that conversation again. He went to his room with tears laid eyes, his father had not even given him sufficient attention before dismissing his proposition.
The second boy, whose name I’ll refer to as Segun, asked his father the same question, explaining the issues on ground and how driving this car to school will increase his social standing. The father, being a very understanding father, who understood the value of a social life, decided to indulge him and gave him the car keys. After a lot of struggle… starts stops and sharp movements… he got the hand of how to move the car. In the course of one full day, he scratches the car, steals from his dad to fix it before he finds out, gets to impress and hang out with wrong company, and gets into big time trouble!
In case you are wondering where all this is leading, listen tight. If you listen to the desire of many hearts today, you’ll find it filled with things. If you could eavesdrop on people’s prayer points, you’ll find that people want, need, and desire for things. “Give me a”, “I want a”, “I need a”, these are some of the phrases you are likely to find in the prayer requests of many. Saints and sinners alike.
In the week just concluded, I did a lot of serious thinking about this concept of pursuing God for the things he can give, for the solutions he can provide. Should our cry be give me, or should it be make me? If you give a man fish, he’ll need fish again and be back. If you teach a man how to fish, then he’ll become independent, but if you make him a fisher man, he’ll have both the skills and the networks to always produce results. Enough of give me, let’s shift our desire to “make me!”
The only thing that is real and replicable is not what you are given its what you produce. Not what you copy it’s what you create. If you allow God to make you, you can produce for yourself more than you are currently asking. Don’t ask for money, ask to be made wealthy, don’t ask for answers, ask to be given understanding, don’t seek for solutions, ask to be made wise. When you are made, you will produce what you are asking to be given.
If you get what you want before you are ready for it, it will destroy you. The father who gives his child snakes before he can tame them, is neither nice nor has love for his son. Some people pray to God for millions, yet one doesn’t need a diviner to know that nothing can destroy their lives faster than sudden wealth. You don’t have enough money to sustain a family today, and you are sleeping around, tell me what will you do when you enter true wealth? You have some change today and you walk like you have a chip on both shoulders, would having more humble you? Today it takes courage to approach you, will you be useful if you get what you want? How many lives do you have the potentials of destroying if God answers your prayers? Stop asking for things, start seeking to grow.
Don’t be a son or daughter that causes shame! Shame is the by product of placing gold rings in the snout of a pig, or casting jewels before swine! God has set the universe in such a way that he is on the lookout for people who will act responsibly with the resources he commits into their hands. He’s not bothered about your religion as much as he is about your disposition. No one pours new wine into old wine skin, no uses old clothes to patch new ones. Quit asking for things, start asking to be the person who the things fit.
Having more doesn’t make you better, being more does. A man’s life does not consist of the abundance of things. The value of money is not in it’s possession, but in the value it adds to another life. Money is called currency, once it stops flowing it stops functioning.
Lord, I pray today, that you make me a blessing to my generation. Make me a positive influence. Make me someone whose words carry value, make me wiser than my age. I am a co-creator with you, make me find who your words say that I am. Rid me of greed and selfishness, make me one who pauses long enough to know when to help. Minister seed to me, and let me get understanding in the season of harvest. Make me a son that brings you joy! Make me qualify for the things you have already given me. Give me wisdom and understanding to make manifest the things that are now unseen. Open my eyes here on earth, to see the things that are mine already in heaven. Your will be done on earth, as it is already in heaven. Make me!
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I’m saying a very big Amen to all the prayers here for myself. This is word in season, i’m blessed. Thanks Deolu for always been a blessing.
Give me has an end…Make me has no end. Give me ceases except we give unto others. Make me will not except we allow ourselves to be broken..I have said the prayer n i believe God for answers..
Amen God is making me and also making you(Mr Deolu Akinyemi) as you add to my Life and to my great country Nigeria also to the Global World.I say Thank You,.
Deolu,
All I can say is a BIG thank you for this message.
May the good Lord bless you.
Thanks indeed.
“The value of money is not in it’s possession, but in the value it adds to another life. Money is called currency, once it stops flowing it stops functioning”…true words.
just like james said,most times when we ask we dont receive because we ask so that we may gratify our selfish desires.
deolu i really enjoyed the booklets you gave to us when you came to OAU.on behalf of paradigm shift international,i say thank you.
Chairman,
Wow! awesome revelation!!! i am really blessed. Money is called currency, once it stops flowing it stops functioning… that hits me like bomb!
thanks for this write up.
we all need to pray our lives more into PURPOSE in God than acquiring possessions!
cheers
Kunle
As always, you move me… the prayer at the end of the post is super, i am printing to add to my daily prayer. Thank You
Imagine… if God were to answer that prayer
[...] realized today after reading from this post, that all I have to do is ask Him to Make Me, not give me, but Make Me and You too [...]
Yes some prayers if answered could cause problems for us…….
but can we stop asking?…
Good piece.
Thank you so much for this message. Many times, we feel bad when our desires are not granted. But God is only obliged to meet our needs! He understands that our desires may not be the best for us. As is commonly said, we should beware of what we want because we might get it.
Nice one chairman.
If you take a closer look at the story of the prodigal son, you will understand better what Deolu is trying to say here. The prodigal son went to his father, and his request was ” Father….give me”. After spending all he had on riotous living he came back, and made the right request - the one he should have made earlier. “Father….make me….” he prayed. When God makes you, then he has no problem giving you
Selah.
CM,
I am a bit confused o. Is it wrong for one to ask? God always expects us to ask from him and his willing to give us what we ask knowing that he is the only one we can trust to meet our needs..
But what i need to ask for is wisdom not to ask amiss of his will for me…
@Pastor Tea,
Spot on… in fact I need to do extra post on that your comment.
Misidreads,
I think you should read that story about the prodigal son. It’s alright to ask for things… infact what you will discover is that God already made provision for you to have all things… the real thing that makes those things manifest is if we accelerate our development to make them fit.
And yes… it’s good to ask what is in line with his will, that’s like saying ask for what he already provided…
Good day Deolu,
IMO, one of ur best post ever with deep scriptural and spiritual truths which many of us (including MHS) do easily overlooked.
“If you get what you want before you are ready for it, it will destroy you”.see Exodus 23:29-30
What a quote this is, “Having more doesn’t make you better, being more does”
Spot on this: “If you allow God to make you, you can produce for yourself more than you are currently asking”. No wonder Jesus told Peter that He would MAKE him.
OMG! The post is simply loaded!
Luv U!
@Tope at 4:07pm
I just went thro the comments and would like to thank you 4 the insights shared in urs. I have really learnt one or two things from it.
“When God makes you, then he has no problem giving you”-Tope Ogunfayo
Luv U!
Chairman
WORD…..hmmmm…..ORO
- see what God told Abraham when he called him
Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, untoa land that I will shew thee:
And I will MAKE of thee a great nation, and I will bless, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.
-see what Abraham asks 3 chapters later
“Lord, what shalt thou GIVE me seeing I go childless and one born in my house is my heir”…Gen 15:2
-see what God replies 2 chapters later
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
And I will MAKE my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
GOD PLEASE MAKE ME, I BESEECH U
What else will I say…
Many thanks and more grease to your elbow.
@ Deolu,
You’ve always been an inspiration. May God never stop increasing you.
@ Royal Prince,
I just checked Exodus 23:29-30. I’m sure I’ve read those verses before, but it’s amazing what I saw in them tonight in relation to what Deolu said.
God bless you.
PAPA D,
Na wa o! You are so accurate with this writeup on the give me mentality of people nowadays.
Like you said in your comment in response to misidreads, and like Excellence Obisesan will say in another form, that “we give God praise, glory and thanksgiving not because he asks it of us, but because it belongs to Him in the first instance”, so likewise when we ask God to make us, not because of what we will gain, but because that is His will for us in the first place “THIS IS ENLIGHTENED SELF INTEREST”.
May HIS wisdom grow in us as we walk and work according to HIS WILL.
this is indeed true we most times forget to pray for the most important things, we are ever carried away by our cares. May God help us to live a better live that is not selfish/selfcentered, you are a blessing thanks a mill.