Some thoughts from Jonah

Jonah 1.1-6

The lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”

But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the lord . He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the lord by sailing to Tarshish. But the lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart. Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship. But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold. Bible.com/app NLT

I'm always amazed at how Jonah went in the opposite direction to his given mission. By trying to run away from God he actually put the lives of other people at great risk and was quite oblivious to their peril. He was so focussed on his own self interest instead of on the interests of others. In running away he was also putting himself in peril.

Unfortunately we often do the same thing. God challenges us to do something, to reach out to others in someway with his Good News of grace, or he asks us to change something in our lives that is hurting us or others. Stubbornly we run in the opposite direction, either physically or emotionally and we don't realise that not only are we making things worse for ourselves, we can actually be complicit in making life worse for others, putting them at risk too by the way we behave and the things we say.

The good news is that if we will look to God, seek his forgiveness for "running away", and follow him, we will experience great freedom. If we do what God asks, not only will we be free but we will have great opportunities to bring his grace and freedom to the lives of others.

Stepping into something new, into the unknown, is not always easy, because it can challenge our security and how we perceive ourselves. However, as we step out, as we learn to trust God, we can do so confident in God's love, his grace and his goodness towards us. We will learn more of who he is and have opportunities we never dreamed about.

The challenge for us all, me included, is to be prepared to take on what God is asking of us and not shy away from it.

What is God asking us to do? What opportunities lie ahead for us?

Are we prepared to overcome the obstacles, take on the challenge and move into His purpose for us?