Jonah 2:2 (NLT), "I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and Lord, you heard me."
Friday... We can get ourselves in so much trouble but God still cares.
It seems that we are in the business of doing life our way and getting into trouble, of making wrong decisions without God but God still is there for us to pray to, to show that he cares and head us in the right direction.
Now there was this great city called Nineveh that was a very wicked city but God came to Jonah and said in Jonah 1:1-2 (MSG), "Up on your feet and on your way to the big city of Nineveh! Preach to them. They're in a bad way and I can't ignore it any longer." Yes, God wanted to tell them the consequences of their evil but he also wanted to give them another chance. That is the kind of God we serve. Yes, Jonah liked the task of telling them they were going to be destroyed in 40 days but he didn't want to tell them that God wanted to give them another chance. Verse 3 says, "But Jonah got up and went the other direction to Tarshish, running away from God." The last part of this verse says, "as far away from God as he could get." But God knew where he was.
We as a Christian world could have problems in letting people, people who are evil have a second chance, but God loves them and wants to save them and to give them a second chance to repent. Yes, that is the kind of God we serve. He loves evil people and he wants to give them another chance to repent and we too could be running away from what God wants us to do. There is a lot of hatred, judgment and pointing fingers but God loves everyone! Oh by the way, he wants to give us a second chance.
Now here it seemed that Jonah blew it just like we do so many times. Verse 4a says, "God sent a huge storm at sea." and Jonah was on this ship going the wrong way in the middle of that storm.
Could it be that some of the storms that we are in are there because we have made a wrong choice and are doing the opposite of what God wants us to do?
Now look at Jonah 2:2 (NLT). It says, "I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and Lord, you heard me."
In order to stop the storm the crew picked up Jonah and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once. That is what Jonah meant when he said, "I called to you from the land of the dead."
And 1:27 (MSG) says, "Then God assigned a huge fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah was in the fish's belly three days and nights." Yes God saved Jonah but in a weird way and that is the way he sometimes works even in our lives. His answer to our prayers may not be the answer we were hoping for but God knows best.
By the way, the fish took Jonah to where God wanted him to go and Jonah 2:10 says, "Then God spoke to the fish, and it vomited up Jonah on the seashore." It was not a real pleasant trip. Yes, God taking care of our great trouble may not be pleasant.
We may not like the way God handles our great trouble but he knows what he is doing.
Jonah 3:1-3 (MSG) says, "Next, God spoke to Jonah a second time: 'Up on your feet and on your way to the big city of Nineveh! Preach to them. They're in a bad way and I can't ignore it any longer.' This time Jonah started off straight for Nineveh, obeying God's orders to the letter."
Yes, Jonah told them they were going to be destroyed in 40 days but also that if they repented, turned from their wicked lives to serving God then it wouldn't happen. And they repented and it didn't happen. God gave this evil city a second chance and he does the same to us when we don't do what he wants. Yes, he also gave Jonah a second chance.
We can get ourselves into so much trouble but God still cares and he wants to give us a second chance. I'm not sure there will be a huge fish but it could be difficult. So just trust God and do what he says. He knows what he is doing. Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning
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