Jonah!
Jonah is a great book to show us so many things. Now Jonah is a prophet and in the first chapter we seen God telling Jonah to go to Nineveh.
Jon 1:1 Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
Now Nineveh is a wicked gentile city, and Jonah was to go and preach to them, but Jonah reacted out of fear and ran.
Jon 1:3 "But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD".
As I have shared before that sin is being independent of God and trying to be God of our own lives. Now all sin has elements of lust and pride in it and so Jonah was acting independent of God's orders and lusting to protect himself. Fear is lust because we want to protect ourselves. All of us lust and fear and we need to call it what it is, SIN! Our pride tells us that we are above God and we know what is best for us. He felt guilt and shame and ran like any criminal would. We too sometimes run from God instead of running to God.
Let us learn to not run from God and be independent of God but rather submit, follow and run to God. May we not live in fear but put on His love as we walk by faith! God always knows what's best for us!
Walk Worthy

 

JONAH
I started this devotional on Jonah yesterday and decided to continue as it has so many great examples for us. Now like I said yesterday God told Jonah to go preach to Ninevah which was a wicked gentile city. Jonah acted independent of God and ran out of fear. He ran and got into a ship to get away from God, but God sent a great wind like a hurricane and rocked the ship. Jonah lusted to protect himself and felt such shame, guilt and fear that he hid in the bottom of the boat. He fell asleep while this storm was rocking this boat.

 

 

Now this is what depression and anxiety will do. It will drain us to the point of wanting to sleep to escape. We can be so tired from the stress and sin and death that it will bring us to a depressed state and break us, I know I have been there. Sin can drive us to a point of death yet for some it is exactly what is needed.

 

Then we see another side of Jonah which we can all do, blame, control and walk in self-pity! The sailors on board the ship wanted to know who was to blame for this. (Playing the blame game from Genesis 3).  Notice as you read Jonah that they were just as self-centered and fearful as Jonah. They wanted to know who to blame, and Jonah took responsibility, control and spoke and told them what to do with him. Now IF he knew he was to blame and really wanted to fix the situation WHY didn't he just repent and go to God OR at the very least just jump over himself. Because he didn't have the courage to do that either. It is like the guy who holds a gun with no bullets and wants the police to shoot him!

 

 

We all sin and often we fear and get depressed and run and blame and act out of self-pity. By the way, depression is shame and guilt of our past and anxiety is fear of the future, and we can have them both at the same time.
Don't live in sin and depression but Run to God and allow Him to comfort you and rest in His love through Jesus Christ our Lord!
 

 

Continuing in Jonah we that after Jonah was thrown into the sea that God made a great fish swallow him. Now if a fish swallowed me, I would be scared to death and that is how Jonah felt, I think. Think about it not only smell and the acids working but going up and down in the salty sea. It would be cold and nasty in that fish! By the way some in the world and even in the Christian community do not believe this could happened yet I recently saw a video where a guy was swallowed up by a whale and survived.
Finally, Jonah had reached his breaking point and "remembered the Lord" or in other words cried out and repented at least for the moment.  
Jonah 2:7 "When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. 8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. 9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD. 10 And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land."

 

You know we all can cry out to the Lord when we are in horrible conditions. When our health or financial issues arise, we often cry out to God. This is what we should do but also on a day-to-day basis we should be thanking our Lord Jesus.

 

Well after crying out that SLVATION IS OF THE LORD The Lord spoke, and the fish vomited Jonah out on dry land. Now I imagine this experience stayed with Jonah for some time. He probably didn't smell good and remembered being inside this fish. Jonah then went on to do what He was supposed to do and that was go to Nineveh.

 

I want to encourage us to PRAISE THE LORD DAILY and be content and thankful daily and when hard times come run to Jesus first before you try to fix the problem.
Walk Worth Today!

 

Continuing in the book of Jonah we see that after Jonah was vomited out of the fish, he obeyed God and began to preach to this great wicked gentile city! Preaching means to proclaim and we are all called to proclaim Christ.

 

 

And look what happened they believed Jonah and they believed God and they had a change of mind!!! They actually repented and God was no longer angry with them. He did not harm them, and He delighted in their faith.
... "10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not."

 

Now this should tell us that we never know WHO will receive the gospel. Share with as many as you can, when you can, however you can. Sometimes a simple "hi" can open a door to proclaiming Christ and sometimes a hug or giving someone in need whatever they need can be a way to share the gospel. Perhaps but not very often a gentle confronting may be needed but, we may find in any situation, that we can always share this GREAT GOSPLE OF CHRIST!
Be BOLD, be STRONG and be Brave!!!