God Works for His Glory

pharmacy

I am always excited by the story of the man born blind from birth, as narrated in John 9. The disciples of Jesus Christ had assumed that his blindness must have been as a result of sin committed by his parents or himself. But in verse 3, Jesus replies, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.”

We know that people suffer for violating spiritual and natural laws. But this case is different. Indeed, some people suffer so that God’s work may be more greatly manifested in them. And God must take the glory for His work. A typical case is this blind man. He was born blind for Jesus to open his eyes to demonstrate the work of God.

Recently, I watched the video of a girl born without the two hands. But the two legs were designed to function as hands also. With only two legs, this lady was doing everything by herself. It was fascinating to watch her cook her food, brush her mouth, wear her clothes, use her makeup and live a normal life without hands. No one watching the video would fail to appreciate the work of God in her life. Such cases are for the glory of God.

We cannot attribute the incredible abilities of this lady to whatever man can do. No level of surgical procedure can restore her feet and hands to normal. Interestingly, even those of us with our hands and feet cannot easily perform those activities.

God wants to take the glory for what He has done. In Isaiah 42:8 (NKJV), He says, “I am the LORD, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images.” Whenever God does something for you, do not hesitate to give Him glory. Don’t give His glory to another person. Take time to reflect on His interventions in your affairs and never fail to give Him glory.

In 1978, God gave me the idea of starting Pharmanews and I have always given Him full credit for that. I do not share the glory which belongs to Him with anybody. But I fully appreciate the instruments He used to realise the great idea.

When it came to the most important factor in realising the idea, God made it in such a way as to confirm that it was His idea and He only could make it work out. I tried all possible ways to raise the money to produce the first edition (May 1979) but did not succeed. I reached out to the marketing managers of the pharmaceutical companies and some of them supported me with adverts for the maiden edition. Since I didn’t have the money for this edition, I appealed to the friendly ones to pay upfront but none was prepared to grant my request.

I was determined not to beg or borrow but did not know what else to do. It appeared God wanted me to reach the end of my abilities and contacts before stepping in. This is what actually happened. One afternoon, I remembered seeing the signboard of a pharmaceutical company, E. Merck, along Town Planning Way, Ilupeju. I had never entered the company and did not know anybody there. On arriving there, the receptionist allowed me to see the MD, without foreknowledge or a previous appointment. That notwithstanding, he warmly received me as if we had met before. I presented my service like a trained marketer. I was with him for less than one hour and he took up the page 2 bottom strip for his Cosome cough mixture advert. In addition, he introduced advert spaces for Cosome also on the wrapper for distributing the copies. I had never thought of that. He said he would pay immediately for his adverts from May to December 1979. Then from January 1980 he would pay upfront every year for his adverts until he decided to stop.

That was how God used E. Merck to provide the seed money that has kept us away from begging or borrowing until today. He did it in such a way as to receive the glory for the success of Pharmanews, using E. Merck and the Managing Director, Mr Ufflerbaumer, as His instruments.