President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera on Saturday took time to remind citizens that Malawi is a God’s most favoured nation in spite of the social and economic difficulties weighing down lives of many.
Chakwera made the sentiments in Lilongwe during the Big Sabbath of the Seventh-Day Adventist. The Big Sabbath was one of the activities the church organized as it hosted the SDA president for the Indian Ocean Division Pastor Harrington Simui Akombwa who has been in Malawi from July 11 to July 16, 2023.
In his remarks, President Chakwera dismissed those who think that God’s favour comes in the form of riches or in the form of an easy life, arguing if riches and ease were the measure of God’s favour, then the hardships in Jesus’ life and the riches he lived without would mean that God’s favour was not with him.
“…and yet we know that despite the hardships and poverty he faced, he was God’s beloved in whom God’s favour and pleasure rested,” he said, adding that the true measure of God’s favour is God’s pursuit of mankind through his message.
The Malawi stated that the Big Sabbath that brought together distinguished servants and people of God from all over the world is a sign of God’s favour upon Malawi nation.
“The man of God today has brought us God’s message to us from Acts Chapter 8, and whenever God speaks to us as he has done today, it is the surest sign that God’s favour is on our nation. It is possible to be rich and never hear a word from God, and there is no favour from God in that kind of existence. In fact, we should pity those nations that are rich in material possessions and yet there is no sound of God’s voice and no sign of God’s word in their midst. Similarly, it is possible to have an easy life with little to no hardship, but such a life should never be desired if it is devoid of the blessing of hearing from God. As such, we should resist the temptation of envying those who seem to have an easier life than we do, for it is no sign that God’s favour is with them,” he preached.
President Chakwera, a renowned cleric of the Malawi Assemblies of God Church, likened life of riches and ease to the sun that shines and sets on all people.
He said this is a sign of God’s care for all his creation and not a sign of His special favour as his children.
On the other hand, Chakwera described life of riches and ease as like the oxygen all people are breathing, saying it is a sign of God’s care for all as His creation.
“But the true sign of His special favour on us is the word we have heard from him today. Imagine a father who provides for his children, who makes sure they have food to eat, water to drink, clothes to wear, and so forth, but he never came home to live with you and never said a word to you. Even though you would see that such a father cares for his children, you would also see that there is something wrong in the relationship, that those children have the father’s care, but not his special favour. So the same is true of God, for the true sign that God’s favour rests on us is his communal presence with us and his communication to us,” said the President.
He added, “And when it comes to God speaking to Malawi, we are truly a favoured nation. For this reason, I want to express my thanks to you, Dr. Harrington Akombwa, for bringing God’s message to us. We have received it with joy and we receive it with faith, the kind of faith that will put it into practice so that the harvest of righteousness that God intends to produce in our land may become a reality. I also want to express my thanks to you for bringing us salutations from the global Seventh-Day Adventist community, for the good will that we are presently enjoying from all over the world is yet another sign that God’s favour rests on Malawi.”
The Malawi Head of State requested SDA and other churches to continue praying for Malawi ‘for we have passed through some turbulences in the recent past’.
He cited the turbulence of Covid-19, Tropical Storms Ana and Gombe, and Tropical Cyclone Freddy, which killed over a thousand people, displaced over half a million, destroyed roads and crops that are used by over two million Malawians.
“As you can see, Man of God, the Lord has been taking our nation through multiple tests, but his word has always been with us because his favour rests on us. For this reason, I ask you and the whole church to keep us in your prayers, that we will not fail the test, and that we will hold on to our faith in God, because he will surely bring us out of these waters just as he brought that Ethiopian out of darkness,” he concluded.
