When you can't run any further
If you’ve been following along on Sundays (or these recaps), you know that we’re in week two of our Jonah series. After being called by God to evangelise to the city of Ninevah, known for it’s barbaric and pagan population, Jonah runs for the hills. He boards a boat and flees, but finds himself in the middle of a storm then thrown into the ocean. Where a big fish eats him up.
We can read stories like this in the Bible and take the position of judge, laughing and wondering what Jonah was thinking. But, stories like this don’t exist to make us feel good about our lack of foolishness. Instead, we must study ourselves and see what God is trying to say to us.
Are you trying to run away from God? It might not look exactly like Jonah’s story, but I’m sure you’ve had your Jonah moments. Where you stop praying and stop reading or consulting your Bible. Where you slowly stop attending church and keep in contact with your fellow believers. Where you are no longer listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit and take on the same perspective as the world.
If you have found yourself in this situation, you can look to Jonah 2 to be reminded of two key things.
God is sovereign
If you think you have total control over your own life, think again. God is the only one who is in total control of all lives. But what does that mean when challenge things happen? Do we look to God in scorn? Jonah himself had a near death experience as he was thrown overboard and eaten by a fish. Yet, in this darkest moment, Jonah prayed and acknowledged that only God was in control. He said,
The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit.
While we have free will, there is never a moment where God couldn’t intervene. But what is more sweet than a lost son or daughter, returning to the warm embrace of the Father of their own will? As James 4:16 says,
You ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
God’s grace will meet us (even in the most unexpected of places)
There’s a lot we can learn from Jonah’s story and one key take away is this: when we disobey God, the result is always bad. Hebrews 12:5-7 says,
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?
Yet, no matter how bad the discipline feels, God’s grace will meet us where we are. Jesus himself said in the gospel of Matthew,
For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:40)
It’s God’s grace that sent that fish to swallow Jonah to protect him from the raging seas, and it’s also God’s grace that Jonah remained protected throughout his whole journey to Ninevah (more on that next week).
God’s grace and his love chase us wherever we go. Lots of people attempt to run from God, going in circles. Only to end up right back where they began: in God’s loving embrace. If you find yourself disobeying God or are currently struggling with the aftereffects of when you did disobey God, submit yourself to him today. Out of grace, he wants you to be part of his plan. As our loving Father, there should be no awkwardness, shame nor guilt when we repent for as it says in Ephesians,
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, (Ephesians 2:19)
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you that you are as gracious as you are loving. Father, help me to recognise your sovereignty over my life even though I may be stubborn. Grow my longing for your plans in my life, that I would be a willing servant ready to do the good works of the Kingdom.
In Jesus’ mighty name,
Amen.