THE Blog
I don't always have enough room in my Instagram posts to write all I want sooo over here I'll be writing
longer articles (but let's be real they won't all be long).
longer articles (but let's be real they won't all be long).
So I've been doing a Jonah devotion lately on the Bible app and this series is inspired by that devotion series! This will be a 4 part series covering the story of Jonah!
Read: Jonah 1 & 1 Samuel 15:22 Meet Jonah, a prophet to a place called 'Nineveh', a city in Northern Israel. Nineveh was a sin-filled gross city BUT that was not what God intended for that city, God gave Jonah the special instructions to go to the city of Nineveh to bring it into repentance. We don’t know how Jonah received these instructions from God, whether it was verbal, in a dream or vision, writing on a wall or through another prophet, but we know Jonah didn’t respond well, he just ran and rebelled against God’s command. When God calls us to do something, He really means for us to do it! (duh) Down is never good when God is up! Notice that verses 3-4 say that Jonah went ‘down’ to Tarshish and ‘down’ to Joppa (which means beautiful) Eventually he ended up DOWN in the belly of a whale, which Jonah himself describes as ‘sheol’ which is another name for hell. While this storm is going on, Jonah was sleeping (Jonah 1:5). This shows his ignorance and just disobedience to God and everyone else on the ship with him. A trap many of us fall into! We sleep when we need to "wake up" and obey God's Word, To obey is better than sacrifice, OBEDIENCE IS BETTER THAN ENDING UP IN A WHALE! (1 SAMUEL 15:22) Don’t deny God in the midst of your storm. Simple as that. In verse 9 we read about Jonah as he states his identity and who he believes in, even in the midst of the storm… what can we learn from that? Even in our mess, don't deny the God that you serve. For this is the one reason why in verse 16 we see that these men who served other gods now feared the Lord God Almighty and made sacrifices & vows unto Him. Without Jonah telling them this, they wouldn’t have known. Jonah took responsibility for his disobedience (Jonah 1:12). In psychology there is something we call ‘Diffusion of Responsibility’ where everybody shares in the blame or the glory of a situation. There was none of that there because Jonah stepped forward and said “cast me out for the sea to calm down.” Very noble of him I would say. Lesson Learned: if you would only get one thing out of this devotion it would be to OBEY God when He calls you to do something. Don't be like Jonah and run away from His commandment, instead run TOWARD it and fulfill it.
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July 2017
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