The snare of presumption: Lenten meditation

The season of Lent, which we are in, constrains us to take the slower pace, to listen, to ponder, to be intentional, to look inwards, to watch our ways and to make necessary amends. It does not come with the excitement of going for a holiday or picnic. No, it is rather like the preparation for a retreat, where one would open the heart to the light of God for that divine illumination that exposes the things that rob us of Heaven’s commendation and, indeed, bring a frown instead. What a privilege to have such opportunity for redress. And how we all  — frail children of dust — who are as feeble as frail, need it!

Lent comes as a time to refocus on life’s priorities and purpose through self-evaluation and self-discipline. The Lord Jesus fasted at the start of His public ministry to focus on His reason for coming to earth and to fulfill it without distraction. We follow His steps.

This week, we focus attention on a common, yet dangerous attitude that can be costly if not checked: presumption. Presumption in the Christian life is that attitude that makes us set aside the practice of paying diligent attention to God’s standards, and instead, set our own standards as the rule to live by. It is setting up our own scoreboard or score-sheet, and proclaiming liberty for ourselves on the basis of our own parameters. With that done, every other thing is viewed as fanaticism, regardless of how God feels. That way the standard followed by the Lord Jesus and His apostles when they cited: “It is written” or “What does the Scripture say?” is replaced with the age-old ruse, “Did God really (actually or indeed) say?” (Gen. 3:1).

This query of divine injunction is always the gateway to a spiritual crash. Those who do not recognise that this is a holy ground are on dangerous ground.

Presumption makes us feel at ease when all is not well; presumption makes us pamper what we should be ruthless with; presumption makes us believe poison is not so bad after all; presumption commends lethargy in our devotion to God, which demands reverence. It is the bane of true Christian discipleship that it seeks to set standards for God to endorse. When people who have been raised on sound biblical principles suddenly begin to query their sure foundations in the name of sophistication, before long they will become a ghost of what God wants them to be. Lives that could make great impact for God become wasted in the playgrounds of Satan.

A starting point for dealing with this subtle snare is to ask ourselves during this holy season some critical questions: who is this God who I believe in? Am I worshipping a god of my imagination or the God in the Bible Who made the universe? Prophet Hosea speaks to our hearts: Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth” (Hosea 6:3)

Lent is a time to bring our convictions under the scrutiny of God’s Word and Spirit, knowing that, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Proverbs 16:25). We must examine ourselves to see if we need to move away from our presumptions about who/what we love or hate.

• The Most Rev. Emmanuel Egbunu is the Bishop of the Diocese of Lokoja.