The Wife of a Servant of God (Part II)

By Odon Bulamba (summary only)

Luke 17:28-30; Genesis 18 & 19

The Bible says that when the angel pulled Lot into the house all the others were blinded. Now the wrath of God had to come. The angel of the Lord said, “go and leave this place, it is now time to leave this city.” The Bible tells us that Lot wasn’t very happy to leave Sodom, God wanted to save Lot but Lot hesitated, he wasn’t sure. How much do we also hesitate to leave sin? How many times does God ask us to leave our sin, and we think that if we leave this sin we will lose something. So the angel of the Lord pushed Lot and said go and see your family and tell them to get ready.

The Bible says that Lot went to see his son in law and he told him that God will destroy this city so we have to leave now, but he didn’t listen. Lot forgot about his neighbours who were around. Lot forgot the church of God in this city. Lot forgot all the people who were sinners in this city, Lot forgot even to ask for forgiveness for the others as Abraham did.

This is exactly what we Christians do today. “Ah! I’ve received this, this is mine and whether you receive something or not it is just your own business”. We are even selfish with God’s Word, to preach we think, “hmm, I am going to preach on Sunday, what am I going to say because I will be paid for that, oh actually I should have gone somewhere and worked so that I can have money but now I have to preach”.

The Bible says that we have received freely and we must give freely but some people want to lock themselves up with the Word of God and they can not see that others are in danger and they can not see that God will soon destroys things that are around and they can not see that everybody will be judged tomorrow. They think “because I know God’s Word I will just share it with my children and my wife only or maybe my son in law but not with people I don’t know”. God is very much against this, God wants every soul to hear the good news and any soul that will accept this good news will be saved. So why don’t we give the word of God to others?

Some people sing today and from time to time I ask for CD’s or tapes because I can not buy them. Those people who have been given a gift to sing, instead of giving this gift freely they change this gift and use it for business; you have received freely give freely. To go to a concert you must pay and if a pastor is preaching there you must pay to get in, where are we going? Lot was in this situation, however God didn’t look at that, He forced Lot to leave and He said to Lot you must leave this city. God showed Lot where to go but Lot said, “no God I’m not going there it is too far, I’d like to go to this village because it’s closer” (Gen 19). That is how God’s servants are proud and they even resist God Himself. God says something and the servant of God says no I want that. Who are you to resist the Lord, who are you to oppose God’s order, are you God’s master or are you His servant? Men must know his place.

Now the angel of the Lord said now it is time to go. The Bible says that Lot took his two daughters and his wife with him. He was told they cannot look behind. The wife started to have curiosity in her heart. Curiosity said, “you are looking ahead of you but there is something behind, just turn around and have a look”. Because curiosity was very alive in her life, the Bible tells us that she turned around and she remained there. We can find that most wives of servants of God have this problem, they are very curious. Just look around, they might be the pastor’s wife, an evangelist’s wife, or another servant of God’s wife but they are very curious. This is their first battle and most of them are weak on that point. “Oh! Who is going there, is it Guillaume?” The wife will confirm that yes it is Guillaume and she will forget that she is with her sheep and she will stand up and have a look around. After confirming that yes it is Guillaume she will say, “what is he doing?”, and after that she will think “why is he doing that?” So you will see step by step because of curiosity the wife will be distracted and she will lose what she has. So, servants of God’s wives, avoid curiosity.

SUMMARY

- The wife of a servant of God must leave sin behind
- The wife of a servant of God must share what they have with others (esp. Word of God)
- The wife of a servant of God must use their gifts freely and not expect to be paid
- The wife of a servant of God must avoid curiosity

We can all apply these principals even if we are not wives.