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And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. Matt 15:22-28

The above story could have gone thus “And behold a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.”  The same setting, same challenge, same request and obviously same outcome. Yet it would have been an accurate but incomplete summary of what transpired. We would have been left wondering what made the woman’s faith great? A couple of persons had their faith commended by Christ but only one other person was ‘great faith’ ascribed to (Luke 7:1-10). So, the difference was in what transpired between verses 23 -27 and there were two things that she did that is worthy of emulation.

Righteousness Exalts a Nation

Being a wisher would not just do anything. I was only wishing my country could become a better place until this scripture jumped at me. I sat myself​ down and I began to meditate on Righteousness.

What is Righteousness? Righteousness is the very nature of God whose Sons and Daughters we have become​. Righteousness is a gift from God to any man who has come to know Him through Jesus Christ. Righteousness is having a right standing with God without any sense of shame, guilt, condemnation or inferiority complex. Righteousness is that which a believer has acquired from God free of charge just by believing in Jesus, our first born. It is a family thing. It's a family matter and everyone in the family is a partaker and should be a participant. It does not matter what the situation is, righteousness remains our nature and we are to give expression to it by standing for the truth, doing what is right and good.

We are the Righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. He who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made righteous, God's Righteousness in Christ Jesus. Now, doing what is right and standing for the truth is no longer an issue with us, it is a responsibility that God has called us into, to obey and to do, fulfilling His purpose for our lives on earth. When we say we are the righteous, it should be that we are indeed on God's side, doing His work, minding His business.

Purpose Not Position

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Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour." 1 Cor 3:5-8.

"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire" Matt 3:11.

One fascinating thing about working and generally living is that one cannot always be alone or by oneself. Even a petty sole proprietor still has to make contacts with the supplier and consumer. It would be detrimental to the business if a sole proprietor gets over their head and begin to contend superiority with either the supplier or the final consumers. Sadly however, we see unhealthy rivalry and power/superiority tussle ensuing in our places of work every now and then.

Let's look at the man John, sent of God with a clear message; proclaiming the coming of the kingdom of God alongside the practical assignment of getting all that have repented of their sins baptized with water.  Great work if you ask me. The man took his ministry and didn't let the message off his lips even in the wilderness. But there was his little cousin (6 months is a lot), Jesus the messiah, who was probably still busy with his carpentry work while John had been losing his voice telling of the Kingdom of God and whose ministry didn't begin until John baptized him and bore witness that Jesus is in deed, the son of God.

A New Tongue

They will speak with new tongues. .....(Mark 16:17)

Those are the very words of Jesus. He had just delivered a mandate to his disciples to go everywhere preaching his resurrection. Among other things, He said a sign of those who believe in Him is that they will receive ability to speak in a new tongue. On the surface when one looks at this statement, we may want to assume that Jesus meant, instead of vulgar languages, we will begin to speak words of grace.

Remember he was raised from the dead before speaking those words and the holy spirit was not yet given. However, on the day the holy spirit was given, we discovered that the disciples of Jesus really spoke in a new tongue, but not a known tongue. This must be the new tongue Jesus had earlier told them about. When the 120 people who were in the upper room were filled with the holy spirit, they all yielded to the Spirit by speaking in new language they never learnt.

That must be the sign Jesus was speaking about. If it were just a change of language or words, then there was really nothing peculiar about it. However, the event on the day of Pentecost that drew the attention of thousands of people in Jerusalem, both Jews and non-Jews, that led to the salvation of 3000 souls after Peter's preaching must be the sign Jesus talked about.

Delegation

In the last article about excellence, we discussed becoming a person of excellence. The beauty and challenge of excellence is that the more you improve yourself, the more you are set apart from the crowd. After months and years of continuous improvement, the difference becomes clear. Your high standard makes mediocrity irritable to you. You easily notice shoddy work and you are labelled a perfectionist. Your subordinates become uncomfortable working with you because they are incapable of satisfying you.  You are afraid to delegate as you will most likely redo the work. You end up doing most things and barely have time for yourself and things that are really important to you.

Moses the man of God was once there. He received a mandate from God to lead his people the Israelites and he gave himself completely to the work. Exo 18:13 says “the next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening”. This became his constant practice and his major work.  Jethro, his father-in-law noticed this and told him what will be the outcome of his actions; total burn out for both him and the people Exo 18:18. While in the beginning, it will seem a great idea having your personal touch on everything your business or ministry does, in the end you will realize that you cannot do it alone and you were less effective than you could have been if you had delegated.