CHEATED : EPISODE 21 – 40
Episode 32
“What unfinished business?”
“Well, I believe you know what I’m talking about.” She responded, he’d hands playing with his beards from behind.
“Rose, Rose, Rose stop all these.” He said as he removed her hands gently from where they were.
“Stop all what? Emmanuel what’s all these? Why all these silent treatments you’ve been giving me for a while now? What have I done so wrong to the extent of you avoiding me? Tell me, what is it?” She retorted, almost moved to tears as Emma thought of what to do or say fast.
“Babe, you do not have to cry over this matter.” He tried consoling as he moved closer to her.
“My relationship with you isn’t worth crying over? It isn’t worth fighting for? I love you Emmanuel, can’t you see? Or…..are you seeing someone else?” She asked as she looked deep into his eyes, searching for answers.
“I…. Rose, it’s not like that. Please allow me to explain myself. The thing is, I found this…..” He tried explaining when he heard panic outside.
He rushed out immediately, with Rose following behind.
“What happened here?” He asked as he saw his secretary and other members do staff help his dad in getting up on his feet.
“Dad are you okay?” Emma asked in concern.
“Yes son, I am.” He said and motioned on his secretary and the rest to leave.
“What happened?”
“I just sat on my chair and suddenly became dizzy. I ignored it at first, but when I couldn’t take it anymore, I decided to drink a glass of water. I was about getting to the water dispenser when I found myself in the floor.” He responded as sighted a lady behind his son aftev speaking.
“Is that Rose?” He asked a s Emma smiled.
“Yes dad.” He responded as Rose greeted. He responded casually as he looked ok for a while, as if suspecting something, before shifting his gaze.
“You can get back to work now, I believe I’m fine.” His dad assured as they spoke a while more before leaving.
“Does your dad know me?”
“Of course he does. I mean I tell him everything.” He responded with a smirk as Rose suddenly became nervous.
“Really? Everything?” She asked nervously as Emma have a smile.
“Nah….he just asked your name and that’s all. I only tell him what he wants to hear na, not like I sit him down to gist about babes.” He responded as Rose held his hand, indicating she had something to say.
“Can we see later this evening, so we can sort things out?” She pleaded as Emma sighed.
“Rose, I’m occupied.”
“Just please…..”
“Okay both not today, tomorrow would be better.” He responded as she gave a light smile.
“Okay then, if that’s what you want.”
“Yeah. Choose a location; preferably a restaurant.”
“Our usual place.” She responded, looking lovingly into his eyes.
“Can I at least kiss you or give you a hug?” She said coming a little more closer.
“Rose just wait till we see.” He said with a shrug.
“Okay.” She said in a low tone and left afterwards.
Deep down inside of him, he felt sorry for her because as far as he was concerned, he wasn’t ready to go on with the relationship.
“I’m so sorry for leading you on, Rose.”
“What are you doing?” Nwankwo asked in a hushed time as he woke up that morning to see his wife fully awake and studying.
“I’m sorry, did the light wake you up? I’m trying to read the Bible.” She responded.
“Let’s do so together, then.” He said as Teresa stared at him in surprise, wondering if the change she had been praying for was already here.
Certainly this wasn’t the first time she was reading her Bible in the night or he was waking up to meet her reading her Bible.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been praying for a change of heart; is it here already?” She thought and waved it off when she saw her husband patiently waiting for her.
“Is anything the problem?” He asked his wife who was obviously lost in thoughts.
“No everything is fine.”
“If you say so. Let’s begin then. What’s our topic for today?”
“Our topic is brokenness and our scripture reading is from Ps. 34:18.
The Lord is nigh unto them of a broken heart and safety such as be of a contrite spirit.” Teresa read to their hearing.
“Honestly, the Bible is a complete book. It has secrets to winning God’s heart, and secrets to winning his favour. In the same vein,it reveals the secrets to the the downfall of vibrant men of God, as well as the secret prayers and patterns of the successful ones.
In this case, we can see that all successful men and women of God had one thing in common, and that was brokenness.
It’s this brokenness that made them follow God despite all odds. It’s as a result of this brokenness that you lack appetite for the world and anything pertaining to it, this the works of the flesh is not seen in your life.
Brokenness simply mean self-denial: you deny yourself the right to get angry when one offends you, the right to talk back or retaliate when one insults you, and so on. Brokenness is not an easy thing, as the flesh would surely kick against it. But you need to tell your flesh you’re the owner of it and you’re in charge, and do the opposite of what it’s telling you to do. Thus, when something’s telling you to get angry, you deliberately do the exact opposite and smile.
When it (the flesh) asks you to retaliate, you disobey outrightly by keeping quiet.
Earlier today, when my flesh asked me to think of my problems, complain and cry about them afterwards, I disobeyed and chose the option of being happy though it wasn’t easy because it wasn’t my nature.”
“Hmmmm…..”
“To be broken isn’t easy, because it is an outright battle against the flesh. It takes both prayers and conscious efforts to be, and stay broken.
You must also have it at the back of your mind that the flesh would war against your being broken because it knows it ends here; there’s no place or space in heaven.” She said, reading from a book and explaining the best way see could, at intervals.
“Wow.” Mr. Nwankwo said.
“Wow what? Is something wrong somewhere?”
“No, not that. Just that, I never knew you to be this intelligent and calculated.” He commented, causing her to smile in response.
“I mean I’ve been trying to make you a better woman because I honestly do not like it when I feel or think you’re a liability to me.” He said further as Teresa recalled how intelligent and smart she once was, but circumstances around her gave no change to develop or display her gifts. She wasn’t able to complete her education and was married off as a gift to Mr. Nwankwo, in order to redeem the friendship between her dad and Nwankwos. To make things worse, her opinion wasn’t sought for and the man was way older than her.
This condition she found herself in made her down as all her plans and dreams to be someone in life were shattered, thus her gifts were left lying dormant. This made her cry at every little thing, knowing that this wasn’t the kind of life she bargained for in the first place.
“Are you there? Teresa!” Nwankwo called, jerking her out of her thoughts.
“Sorry, I didn’t hear you properly.” She said.
“Teresa, what is it? Or what did I say that would warrant your going too deep into thoughts that you didn’t hear a word I said? Talk to me Teresa.” He said lovingly as he reached for her hand.
“It’s nothing; except that I don’t remember the last time you spoke kindly to me.” She lied.
“I spoke kindly to you? I haven’t even said much yet. Don’t try to dodge the question Teresa, please tell me what the problem is.” He said, holding her hands reassuringly.
“Eery since I go married, I’ve been a shadow of myself.” She began.
“Then I was a promising Christian young lady, willing to do the things of God without complains. But things were unfortunately not favorable and as soon as I got married, all hope was lost. Adaeze my friend then, asked me if I was sure I had wanted to do this but the truth was I had no say, since the marriage was based on agreement of friendship redemption.
The circumstances I found myself in made me lose faith in God, an that things could ever become batter. I just feel sorry that my gifts are just lying dormant inside of me an. There’s little or nothing I can do about it.” She said, trying hard to hold back her tears, but her tear glands kept betraying her.
“Hmmmm…..I you really lost faith, why did you go back to praying and taking your Christian life serious recently?”
“To get honest, it’s because the dream I had of my family being attacked is still fresh on my memory. Though I backslided and lost fellowship with God and the brethren, I still have the gift of being able to see what’s happened or what’s about to happen in my dream. It’s not a surprise to me that I still have that gift up till now because the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
I hardly dream but when I do, it surely happens and that’s why I’m bothered.” She said, sending her husband into thoughts.
“Okay so which of the dreams are you talking about?”
“I remember seeing an animal trying to attack everyone of us. The only thing that prevented it from striking was a weak rod-like gate standing in between us; but the gate was threatening to fall an that was when I woke up.”
“Hmmmmm…..”
“I know the rod-like gate represents the present protection in my family, but it is very weak. Though I’ve cancelled the dream, I’m very meticulous about it to see that nothing happens to any of us, including Kingsley.” She said.
“Okay but we could just pray to God to protect us from evil, since we’ve cancelled the dream already.”
“I know dear. But somehow, the dream send a revival to my soul. There are dreams and there are dreams. There are dreams you wake up from, and you’d do nothing but praise God throughout the day for what He has revealed to you.
There are dreams that’d just warn you to be careful about that journey you’re about to embark on. There are dreams that’d give. You direction, and so on. All these dreams are positive.
The negative dreams come when there’s a ladder in; in my case, the ladder is prayerlessness. If not, that rod-like gate I saw would’ve been strong, or the Lion of the tribe of Judah himself would appear to fight and devour the devourer.
Dreams are meant to direct, to counsel, warn and reveal secrets; but when we as Christians are prayerless and careless about our dreams, the devil comes to project sickness, death and other things deterrent to man into our lives through our dreams.”
“Hmmm.”
“So now I know this attack is forthcoming and and we’re more of less not immune to it because we don’t pray, and are this weak in the spirit.” She said further as Nwankwo nodded.
“Then it shouldn’t be just you that’d partake in this revival of yours; it should be the whole family. We can begin by praying at least once a day, abi?” He asked as Teresa kept staring, wondering if it was her husband speaking or she was in one of her wish dream.
She remembered how she had always hoped he’d be at least spiritual for once when she was newly married to him. She however kept it as a wish in a wishlist and never seriously prayed about it, until the fire in her was quenched.
It was just few months ago she began earnestly praying and interceding for him in the place of prayers; for at least 30mins each day, because she wanted her prayers answered as quickly as possible.
It then hit her that it wasn’t enough to wish for something good, until you consistently and persistently pray for it to happen.
“What is it you keep thinking about whenever I speak?”
“Nothing, I’m just surprised.”
“Surprised about what?”
“That you’re coming to agree with me on spiritual matters for the first time since we got married. I mean, the same person that stopped me from fellowshipping with other Christians and forbade me from praying is the one suggesting prayers now. What wonder!” She said as he smiled.
“About praying in this house, you started disobeying that order recently.”
“Well that was because I could see danger lurking around.”
“Anyway, the reason I stopped you was because I didn’t see the results of your prayers.”
“The results of my prayers? I don’t understand.”
“I mean we see prayerful Christians becoming rich and comfortable, why was ours any different?
Asides spiritual growth and health, doesn’t God care about other areas of our lives too?” He asked as Teresa looked on in surprise.
“At least we read the Bible often as kids then; we then came across promises of wealth to those that diligently seeking Him, saying that the Earth was His and He distributed wealth to whomever He pleases.
The Bible even went further to inform us that the riches of the unjust is laid up for the just; but I wasn’t seeing anything wealth coming close to us as a result of me having a prayerful wife.
For two years I waited for a change or something, but when I was certain nothing was forthcoming, I decided to stop you from your religious practice.” He said as Teresa’s jaws dropped in awe.
“Did he just call it a religious practice? Everything I did was practically for my family- for our own good.” She thought.
“But at least the prayers I made kept us from evil, and I’m sure spiritual blessings were being stored up.” She said in defence.
“Teresa are we going to eat spiritual blessings??? Abraham was rich both physically and spiritually. Teresa stop limiting and underestimating him in any manner. He’s your create and so is concerned about your every need. He is there to protect, direct, care, provide and then bless you spiritually and physically.
You were only letting Him fight for you and not perform in other duties in your life as the God He is. See, I know and am sure of two things that bring about unsuccessful relationship with God; and they are unbelief and limiting God.
Perhaps you didn’t believe the “you shall not lack”
You shall enjoy the riches of the Gentiles” verses of the Bible you read; but strongly believed in “your enemies shall know no peace! Or do you think those verses weren’t meant for people like you? Maybe God was talking to the already wealthy Christians?”
“Hmmmmm”
“Teresa the fact that you limited God to our spiritual needs alone wasn’t really cool with me. But I didn’t know how to say all that to you because it might look like I’m opposing what you believe and you might end up crying like you easily do.
Also, you didn’t even let the word of God change you. Your character and everything remained the same; I didn’t see any change.
You were my own Bible and all I was seeing was a toxic Bible, who believed in the protection of God and nothing more.” He said further and paused as Teresa marvelled greatly.
“I never knew he was monitoring my every move and……I was his own Bible? God! Was his lack of Faith in His my fault of not displaying Christ right? My God! Is this how this man’s blood would’ve been on my neck because of my limiting God to the spiritual needs of our lives?
Wait…..is this how most Christians lose souls and have blood in their hands because of this issue? Hei….Chineke! He’s even quoting Bible for me o. But how did he know all these? God have mercy.” She kept thinking.
“….faith.” Nwankwo said.
“You said what?” Teresa asked, as all she could see was the movement of his lips, owing to the fact that she was in deep thoughts.
“I said we need to have faith in whatever that has to do with God, so His word can work for us and not just be a letter of the Bible. I even told myself I wasn’t going to be a part of this whole thing anymore, until I see the change it brings about in you. That was why your reaction yesterday’s morning left me dazed, because it seemed like it was beginning to have effect on the other areas of your life.”
Teresa looked at him in shock as she remembered whenever she wanted to intercede for him, she was always taken to Luke 6:38-42.
“It means my character was a stumbling block to this man’s salvation. My attitude was the beam in my eye that the Bible verse was talking about then, that was why I was always asked ‘can the blind lead the blind?’ in that scripture. Hmmmmm” she thought deeply.
“You see we know most things in the Bible, to the point that nothing is new to us….I mean the ones you call unbelievers. You are now the Bibles we read, that’d determined l whether we’d listen to you or not.” He said with a tone of finality as Teresa nodded in understanding.
“Have I now satisfied your curiosity as to why I’m begining to agree with you on spiritual matters?”
“Yes, very well.”
“Good. Let’s continue then, or are we done already?” He asked as she checked the time.
“Time really isn’t on our side, and we have to wake up early for today’s work.”
“So?”
“We pray and go to bed.” She said as she led the closing prayers. As soon as she was done, they said goodnight and retired to bed.
Teresa however didn’t sleep immediately that night, as her discussion with her husband left her marvelled.
CHEATED : EPISODE 21 – 40
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