Jonah Chapter Three

I just finished studying Jonah 3 this week. Incredible! We've gone over all of Jonah in our Bible study, but its been awesome getting a different perspective on the book while going over it in Church.

I think one of my favorite things about Jonah is how God slowly enters into his life. At first, God has Jonah's mind. Jonah had all the right knowledge about God, but God did not have Jonah's heart until chapter two. While Jonah faces death, isolation, and the complete unknown, he finally gives his heart over to God. How incredible is it that those are the circumstances in which he does decide to hand his heart over? Just reading that blew me away because it is so true to my life as well. Finally, in chapter three, Jonah gives God his hands...he lets God use him for His will. Although Jonah did not want to go to the city of Nineveh, he did because God was making it clear to him that that is what He wanted Jonah to do. Even though Jonah so desperately did not want to follow God's Will, he still gave God his hands to use.

That just made me think of how God makes us and allows us to grow. He grows us from the inside out, and it is all things marvelous. We are in no place to be used physically by God if we are hurting and falling apart on the inside. Once we have that faith and trust in God in our hearts, and we truly believe, God makes us change on the outside...He uses our hands.

Chapter 3 also made me realize that if we just obey God in the beginning, then we can avoid a lot of hardship. Jonah ran from what God wanted him to do, and he ended up being tossed overboard on a ship and stuck inside a fish for three days. If Jonah had just listened to God's word in the beginning, all of that could have been avoided. This is true in my life as well. I find that when I run from what God wants me to do (or has even made possible for me to do ) I'm in a similar position as Jonah. I face a lot of hurt, uncertainty, doubt, and hardships that could have easily been avoided. God has blessed my life in the way that I feel like He makes it very obvious what He wants me to do at times. He lets me know when I'm doing something I should be doing or should not be doing. It makes it that much easier to follow His Will, but I still find myself running from Him at times. I could either run from God and face the hardships and pain and loneliness, or I could do what God wants me to do and walk with Him.

I'm not saying that following God's Will for your life will lead you down a path that is not marked with any suffering. In fact, I'm sure it will lead you down a path with some pain. Spiritual progress can be on a path marked with pain, struggling, and failure. The difference is that God will be walking with you the whole time, holding your hand, and guiding you.

Another thing that really struck me about Chapter three is just God's heart for the lost. The people in Nineveh were not the most loved people of the time. In fact, Jonah did not like them at all, which is why he was so against going there. However, in God's eyes, they were just as valuable to Him as everyone else in the world is. He saw their flaws, and loved them just the same...so much that He wanted them to know His love. In our lives, we will never lock eyes with someone who God does not love. I try to see the best in people, I try to love them with all of my heart, and there are times when I fail at that. There are some people that are just hard for me to love, but in those situations I just pray for them and for myself....just to remind myself that God loves them so much.

So thats what I've been learning through Jonah!

"O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be
Let that grace now, like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to Thee
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here’s my heart, oh, take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above"

Those are lyrics to a song that really just hit me when I heard them. I was impressed with how much they affected me! Since I've heard it, that part of the song has just been sitting in my heart. How fitting is it with everything in Jonah? Personally, I am so prone to wander away from God and His love in search for something else. I just pray that God's grace would just bind my heart to Him, and just keep me in His arms at all time. So incredible!