Archive for November, 2009

Read Jonah 2:10

Our God is the God of the second chance.

And the third chance.

And the fourth.

I think you get the point.

And while some may not appreciate or take advantage of the second chances that our great God offers, I am comforted to know that when I “pull a Jonah”, God is more than willing to give me another chance to choose obedience.

Aren’t you?

Father, thank You for second chances.We don’t deserve them, but You give them to us anyway. And when you give them, help us to take advantage of them by fully submitting ourselves to what You ask us to do.

Read Jonah 2:7-9

God deserves my complete worship and devotion. He is so worthy of my undying love.

There is no one like HIm. No one or nothing compares to Him.

But sometimes it takes some extreme circumstances for me to remember this important truth.

This is what happened to Jonah as well.

If you haven’t been reading the last couple of days, you need to know that at this point in the story of Jonah, he is inside the belly of a fish. And it’s inside the belly of this sea creature, that Jonah makes this amazing statement: “Salvation comes from the LORD”

Now, when he makes this statement, he’s not just talking about Heaven and Hell.

Jonah is saying that salvation from misery comes from the LORD. Salvation from unhappiness comes from the LORD. Salvation from guilt comes from the LORD. Salvation of any and every kind comes from the LORD.

Do you believe that?

Read Jonah 2:5-6

Rebellion and pain are close friends.

And what happened to Jonah also happens to us when we rebel. Sure, most of us aren’t going to be thrown overboard in violent waters and have a giant fish swallow us, but you can bet that we’ll endure more than our fair share of pain when we disobey God.

I know that as a loving father to my kids, when I see them rebel, I introduce them to different kinds of appropriate pain. I may take something away from them that they value. And yes, I may even discipline them with a paddle.

But I don’t inflict pain because I like to

I hate that part of being a father.

However, at the same time, I am committed to helping my children understand that rebellion and pain are connected. I want them to know that to rebel is to set yourself up for some serious pain.

So, may you remember that rebellion and pain are close friends. And may you obey God and be blessed because of it.

Read Jonah 2:3-4

Sometimes circumstances are just circumstances.

Sometimes God is not sending you the signs that you think He is sending you.

But sometimes God is working behind the scenes to send you a message. Sometimes God clearly is up to something in your life.

Jonah recognized in the belly of a fish that God was up to something in his life. He was confident that God had caused all the recent events in his life. He even says that God “hurled” him into the ocean and that God “banished” him from His sight.

It was obvious to him that the storm and the fish weren’t coincidences.

God had a plan for Jonah before he even got on that boat. And it became clear to him through the circumstances he found himself in.

And I believe that he has a plan for us too if we start to go down the path of disobedience. And hopefully, we’ll never have to discover what that plan is!

Read Jonah 2:2

God listens to our prayers of confession, regardless of how blatant our rebellion might have been.

God listened to Jonah’s prayer in the belly of the fish, and he hears our prayers whatever situation we find ourselves in.

Even when it seems like there’s no reason for God to listen to Jonah’s prayer, God pays attention to every single word Jonah speaks in His direction.

And what Jonah discovers, and what I’ve discovered, and what so many of you have discovered, is that when we are in the worst possible circumstances we could ever imagine ourselves in, if we’ll just turn to our Heavenly Father and repent, we’ll find that He’s eager to listen and hear our prayers.

And that just makes me happy.

Read Jonah 2:1

One of the more curious verses in all of the Bible is our verse today.

“From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the LORD his God.”

Really?

Did that just say what I think it said?

I mean, it’s one thing to believe Jonah was swallowed by a giant fish, but it’s another thing altogether to believe that he didn’t die from this experience.

In fact, not only did he not die, but evidently, he took advantage of his situation by praying.

And this leads me to a thought.

Why is it that we wait until we find ourselves in the worst possible circumstances before we talk to our Heavenly Father? I mean, why don’t we talk to Him when we’re having a good day or when things are going our way? Why do we wait when our world is falling apart to engage in a conversation with our Creator?

Think about that today. And while you’re thinking, have a conversation with your Heavenly Father.

Read Jonah 1:17

If you remember yesterday, I said that God will sometimes use radical means to gain our attention.

God wants our full, undivided attention and He is willing to do whatever it takes to get it.

I think this means that when God can’t get our attention or our obedience through His normal means, then He will resort to more unconventional means of getting our attention.

In Jonah’s case, He sent a fish to swallow him whole.

Pretty extreme, right?

And although it’s unlikely anything as strange as that will happen to us, God certainly might take our job away from us. Or He might allow something far worse than that to happen to us.

And again, it wouldn’t necessarily be to pay us back for something we’ve done to Him. It might be an attempt to bring us back into a relationship with Him.

Read Jonah 1:17

If necessary, God will use radical means to gain our attention.

But he doesn’t use such extreme means to pay us back, but to bring us back.

I know that this may not seem like much, but think about that the rest of the day.

Read Jonah 1:17

You can run from God, but you can’t outrun God.

Eventually, He will catch up.

It may be sooner than you expected. Or it may be much later than that, but one day, God will catch up.

After all, He’s not just going to let you go.

In fact, when we run from God, God comes after us. He is absolutely relentless in His pursuit of us.

Our God is a loving, patient, merciful God and He never stops pursuing a relationship with us, even when we run.

So, you can run from God if you want to. Just remember that you can’t outrun Him.

And by the way, that last statement shouldn’t make you nervous. It should make you happy.

Read Jonah 1:12-16

“Pick me up and throw me into the sea…and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”

The above statement has got to be one of the most pathetic phrases in all of Scripture!

At first glance though, you might actually think that Jonah is sorry.

But he’s not.

In that moment, he could have easily have said something like, “Oh God, I am so sorry for disobeying You! I’ve really blown it! Please forgive your humble servant. I will go to Ninevah and do whatever you want me to do.”

Instead, Jonah essentially says, “I would rather die than do what God say!”

Sure, he doesn’t verbalize it exactly that way, but isn’t that what he’s saying?

And if we’re not careful, when God asks us to do something, nudges us to have a conversation, we’ll do the exact same thing.