This past Sunday I was given the wonderful opportunity to share this Journey God is taking me on with my family’s church back home! I shared where and why I am going on the World Race. It was so cool to hear all the excitement and questions. During my time of sharing I shared a story that God used to help lead me to saying yes to Him – a story He continues to use to show me more of Him! This story is probably one many of you have heard; it’s the story of Jonah. I shared what God was showing me through this story and I would like to share it with you as well. Now this is what I had typed out to say this past Sunday morning and for those of you that where there and are reading this now, you may notice I either didn’t actually say all this or added different parts in. I think I hit most of the big points, but this was my “script” of what I was going to say before I got in front of you all and probably started rambling. 🙂
Before turning in my application I went through a study on Jonah, a study that I now know God was, and still is, using to show me so much. Now to be honest before this study most of my knowledge of Jonah was from the Veggietales movie, which was and is still very entertaining. But now that I have been able to dig into the story of Jonah the more I have realized I AM DONE BEING LIKE JONAH!
Jonah was a prophet – someone who was knowledgeable on who God is and what He has done. Yet Jonah still decides it is a good idea to flea from God’s presence. God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh and share what God has told him. Instead, Jonah goes out of his way to pay a fee to get on a ship that was definitely not going where God was calling him. Jonah had a lack of compassion for the people of Nineveh. Jonah wasn’t comfortable going and sharing God with them… This hit me. Through this I realized that when I don’t share God with someone because I am uncomfortable, I am deciding who God should save based on how comfortable I am with engaging with them. And that, that did not settle well with me. I heard someone say “If God responded to us like we respond to others, none of us would be saved.” Oh how truly sad that is. God was calling Jonah to respond just like he is calling us in some way to respond as well.
Now Jonah was setting out on this journey away from God, and of course God wasn’t having it. God was trying to get Jonah’s attention. God was destroying their ship through a storm just to get his attention. But good ol’ Jonah decides he is going to go lie down at the bottom of the ship, while the other men on the ship were praying to their own gods, throwing things overboard, and trying to find some solution. As nothing seemed to be working they came down to get Jonah. Now pause… God is trying to get Jonah’s attention and Jonah is sleeping!?! Honestly, I got frustrated with Jonah so much throughout this story because God is making it abundantly clear what he wanted, and Jonah just ignores Him! I was frustrated and a tad jealous that God was speaking to Jonah in such a clear way and Jonah ignores God. But then I had this thought run through my mind…Am I sleeping while God is trying to get my attention? (Literally because I take a lot of naps and figuratively to where I am just not paying attention to what God is trying to say to me)
Also what’s crazy about this part of the story, is that the other men on the ship recognize God’s greatness when Jonah tells them who he is and who he serves. God works through Jonah’s disobedience and shows His glory!
So as the storm continues, the men on the ship have no other choice but to throw Jonah over board . Jonah was being so selfish here, instead of owning up that this was his fault and jumping of the boat or crying out to God he tells the other men to throw him overboard! Jonah isn’t taking responsibility for his own actions.
Now of course God is good and didn’t want Jonah to die so, God APPOINTED a fish to swallow Jonah… God APPOINTED a fish… if God appoints a fish to work for His glory then He is definitely appointing us for His glory. Now, while in this fish, Jonah had a nice little chat with God and eventually God had the fish puke up Jonah on the shore and God told Jonah for the second time to go to Nineveh. I think something cool about this is that God doesn’t just put Jonah at the edge of Nineveh, but rather Jonah still has to be obedient and travel to get to Nineveh. This shows that God doesn’t just give up on His plans for us and he wants us to walk in obedience.
Thankfully, this time Jonah goes to Nineveh and speaks what God told him to and they believed! Jonah did what God said but still wasn’t happy about it. Jonah actually went up to a hill to watch and wait for God to destroy Nineveh. Yet God still doesn’t give up on Jonah! While Jonah is on the hill in the scorching heat God protects him with a plant and continues to move Jonah’s heart to a place of compassion.
After reading the story of Jonah I came to this conclusion I an a lot like Jonah and I am done being that way. I want to be unselfish, compassionate, and obedient. I am thankful God uses me through my disobedience, but I am tired of God having to use me in my disobedience and I’m excited to see what he can do, and is going to do, in my obedience!
There is so much beyond what I have shared that you can learn from the story of Jonah so, I encourage you to read it for yourself. I would love to hear what God has shown or is showing you through this story!
