How to overcome challenges of the age with Daily Manna

Book: Daily Manna-A Daily Devotional Guide (January-December 2020)
Author: W.F. Kumuyi
Publishers: Life Press Ltd, Lagos
Reviewer: Banji Ojewale

It has been said that you can tame each day if you give yourself to meditation and planning as you wake from sleep in the first hours of the day before sunrise. The sages teach that in our troubled world, you can make or mar the day; you can influence the day according to your taste, independent of external circumstances, which are not under your control. The old wise men insist that if you diligently spend quality time in methodical meditation and placid planning before plunging into the day, you would have the world in your pocket. They teach that the exercise projects one into the given day to enable you to turn what it has in store into what you want it to be, in a manner of speaking.

In this book, Pastor W. F. Kumuyi, General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Ministry, validates this power of proper meditation and its potential to let you align with the best of the day and escape its snares. But he does not subscribe to the ‘universalist’ idea of morning devotion devoid of the Bible and its Author, God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth. Therefore, being a servant of God who honours the Bible, Kumuyi inserts a caveat: your effort in devotion or meditation at dawn can only be rewarding and fruitful if it has the God and Bible input. God must be present in this early morning activity if you want it to unlock its mysteries. Only He knows them. He unveils them to those who seek Him early through His Word, in quiet moments, in prayer, in study without distractions. That is when man can hear from Him, Who can declare ‘’the end of (a day or year or season) from the beginning.’’ So if you open your day with Him, He reveals its course and conclusion, thereby enabling you to avoid its traps and dangers.

The book of this greatly respected cleric declares its mission thus: ‘’Daily Manna is an extraction of God’s Word, and mainly serves to draw the sincere seeker closer to God on a daily basis, through an insightful exposition and compelling analysis of God’s Word. It sets out to provide spiritual nourishments for those who are truly committed to seeking God and walking closely with Him. In this compendium of devotional readings are to be found gems of depths of God’s riches and grace which, if heartily received and obediently applied, have the capacity to transport us beyond the carnal realm.’’

Kumuyi’s devotional book does more, according to Adesakin Olabode, an octogenarian resident at Somolu, Lagos. Pa Olabode’s position is that the writings in Daily Manna are prophetic and ‘‘timely’’, ordained to address the challenges of the day, despite their being written much earlier. He supports his view by picking the entry of Friday, March 20, 2020, titled ‘Receiving Messianic Mercy’. Kumuyi concludes in the teaching: ‘’Today, a grieving world can also benefit from the mercy of the Son of David…Our age needs the Messiah for escape from…plagues. Our era’s challenges are spiritual, leading to overwhelming disasters universally. The mission of the Son of David is to deliver a world trapped in the snares of sin, self and Satan. Let the people of the world approach Him for mercy…’’

At a time the world lies helpless at the feet of Covid-19, isn’t it time to wake up each morning looking up to a Power beyond the earthly one for intervention and deliverance?

Pa Olabode alludes to two other excerpts in Pastor Kumuyi’s 2019 Daily Manna to prove that beyond the book’s function as a guide to navigate us through the day, its teachings serve larger catholic objectives. He goes back to presentations of February 2019 that had these titles, ‘Reading the Word for Revival‘, and ‘Shutting out the Prince of Peace’. It was at a time of national misgivings and uncertainty concerning the general elections in Nigeria. Olabode concludes that, given this background, Kumuyi’s articles were ‘’too well chosen, timely and relevant to our nation and her situations.’’

Another strength of Daily Manna is the ability of its short pieces to lead you gently and persuasively into their discourse. After the Bible text and a key verse, a typical one opens mostly with a secular anecdote fetched from history or with a profound philosophical statement. It then uses it to link you to the early Scriptural rendition. An explication is next, followed finally by a conclusion that is a veritable drill on how to apply the teaching to your life and the day’s business. There’s a parting one liner capsule called Thought for the day, along with a column, The Bible in one year, that enables you to read both the Old and New Testaments in a calendar year.

But there are drawbacks. There’s no uniformity in writing of the ‘Word’ of God. Sometimes you have ‘w’ in upper case. Other times are lower. Same with Gospel. ‘G’ comes in both forms. Also the book isn’t neatly bound; some pages are pulling out of the glue or stitching, an indication of poor finish suggestive of hurried packaging.

Kumuyi’s Daily Manna is recommended for every home, irrespective of one’s denomination or calling. It boasts a lofty goal. In calling on the individual and the family to start each day with their Creator, the author is saying man and his society can overcome their travails if they learn to begin and go through their journeys (and daily activities) by first committing them to the One Who knows ‘’the end from the beginning.”

He knows the close of the day before it even cracks open. If man and his family hear from Him before embarking on his day or on any project, they will be saved from the reckless misadventures that bring plagues and disasters upon mankind. If the family is the fulcrum of society, it follows that it will be well with society if it is well with man and his family.