Book: Daily Manna (A Devotional Guide, January-December 2025)
Author: W. F. Kumuyi
Publishers: Life Press, Lagos, Nigeria
Pagination: 379
Reviewer: Banji Ojewale
William Blake was the Romantic English poet who believed that if you had it right from sun-up, you’d be positioned for success all through the day till sun-down. What he simply meant was that you needed to dedicate quality time to plot your vision of the trajectory of the day as you leave the bed.
You impose your wishes on the day before you move into it, he insists; otherwise you’d run into elemental and untamable circumstances. The writer who lived between two centuries (1757-1827) put it this way: ‘’Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.’’
An extrapolation of the poet’s theory leads to this breakdown: as you wake, think and plot your movement for the day; by noon, turn what you thought through and plotted into weapons to subdue your challenges; at dusk return to enjoy the gains of the day; finally, you retire into the warm nocturnal embrace of sleep.
But our take as we read the devotional of Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi, is that although he subscribes to Blake’s proposal about opening your day with a strategic mental cogitation, the cleric strongly declares that such inner effort must have Biblical props, without which one wouldn’t experience a triumphant day. That’s the uncompromisingly sublime tip Kumuyi offers in the Daily Manna book: the God factor and its infallible instructions.
Now, some cynical critics may ask: what else do you expect from the man Heaven used to establish the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, DCLM, an organization completely given to the irreducible ideals of holiness and craving for Heaven in a world centrifugal from its Creator? I may concede some point here. But Kumuyi has long left behind this history, even if it was the cradle leading to the birthing of a thousand and one other histories, including his monthly anti-denominational Global Crusade with Kumuyi, GCK, along with the recently launched project, Change Makers International, CMI. These are radical flights from the norm in Christendom and society.
So, how did the clergyman open his day into his world and then went on to sustain the streak of successes he’s been identified with all these decades? You may not need to meet the octogenarian physically to unearth answers. Just go for the nuggets he’s dropping in Daily Manna of 2025. He delivers what I think has helped him in his Ministry. He shares his secrets, and says if daily we apply them, we’re guaranteed victory, growth, development and spiritual and physical fulfilment. Pastor Kumuyi has exhibited all these phenomenally in Ministry and in secular life. Why won’t we enjoy same or more if we emulate him?
Therefore, every entry in the Daily Manna under review is about going to God early in the day for the transformation we need to connect to His riches and enablement. Take the inspiring presentation that launches the reader into 2025. After considering some five resolutions of American revivalist preacher and philosopher Jonathan Edwards of the 18th Century, Kumuyi argues that they ‘’provide a reflective template for the New Year.’’
He then explains: ‘’This New Year (2025) offers new opportunities to recalibrate all our dreams, desires and decisions. It offers a new dawn of new opportunities to rewrite our stories for greater accomplishments and impacts in our professions, family life, and God-honouring social entrepreneurship endeavours. Of course, it offers new resources to rejuvenate our waning energies for service and exploits in the Kingdom…Our God is a God of New Beginnings.’’
We are thus inspired to apply the same principle to everyday of the year all our life. What guides us safely through the entire year should hold true for our daily encounters. Chief among what is recommended is a godly life in society. There are references to great men and women in the Bible and in secular history who modelled virtuous character.
The January 10 article recalls William Wilberforce, the British human machine who battled slave trade. Kumuyi says we need men and women like him to administer the society on the routes of justice, equity, and fairness, since ‘’the Bible affirms that righteousness in private and spaces will continue to exalt a nation.’’ This piece has a fitting parting shot called Thought for the day: ‘’Godliness and good governance are allies.’’
Kumuyi wouldn’t do without teaching on salvation, the core of Christianity. So here comes an anecdote on Billy Graham, late American evangelist. He’s prosecuted for speeding. He pleads guilty and fined. Now the judge, after recognizing the famous minister, pays the fine and proceeds to take the man of God to dinner. The bottom line: God surprises repentant sinners with extras after pardon. Salvation is full and free because it was fully paid for by Jesus Christ.
As we’re moved by the narratives, so are we by the openings and the headings. We have one which says, ‘’Is the Bible cruel?’’ Another: ‘’What the dying world needs.’’ One more: ”Between the messenger and his message.’’ These are one-liners of suspense meant to arouse thirst for more of the article. Daily Manna’s dramatic openers have the same effect. Check these two: ‘’Indifferent people cannot build a different world.’’ And ‘’There’s not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of one candle…’’
These, along with the witty Thought for the day depositions, are pithy expressions that brighten the delivery of the General Superintendent of Deeper Life Bible Church, DLBC, as he reveals how we can sail through the year one day at a time. Another feature in the devotional is the guide to read the entire Bible in a year, again taking a few passages in a day.
The whole package has benefited many worldwide, with Kumuyi’s Daily Manna finding its way into homes, schools, hospitals, hotels, prisons, police cells, markets, airports, lawmakers’ chambers etc.
The book has become a silent evangelist; it is changing lives and improving society. For wider and penetrative coverage, there are translations and audio versions of Daily Manna in various languages worldwide.
The 2025 edition is coming, for the first time, with testimonies from Daily Manna readers across the globe: Ghana, USA, Canada, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria etc. See these: “This Daily Manna is my morning bite. I run on it.’’ Another: ‘’What a daily refreshment and rejuvenating experience to hear from the Eternal God every morning.’’ A third: ‘’Lives are being enriched and blessed with the Daily Manna…’’
Pastor Kumuyi applies Olympian language to reach his readers with the Word of God they need to glide through the potential storms of the season. It is a style that is also earthy without being banal. His words drop enlightenment without exhibiting a judgmentally condescending tone. Finally, the evangelist is at his legendary best as he flies on the wings of Divine inspiration to address the multifarious needs of his unseen audience.
That’s a vantage peak, because it’s only there he can connect in spirit to the concerns of those he’s writing to. This is the reason some of the articles, written before the previous year, assume an uncanny garb of prophecy as they deal with challenges of the moment, even when in the womb of time, long before they unravel.
Ojewale is a writer and journalist at Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria
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