Ok you guys I’ve been away from my blog for a long time. I just felt like God wasn’t giving me material for a blog but he has given me so many insights in my journal. These blog posts may just be straight out of my journal with little editing. I want to download it to you the same way it was downloaded to me! It’s definitely going to be different. I’m writing a second and third book. My third book is called Get out of Your Boat and it’s about letting go of the past by getting out of your boat and stepping into your future which is the boat that has Jesus as a captain. So I feel like this new way of blogging will be me sharing excerpts from my books that I’m working on. So God gave me something really good from the book of Jonah. So here goes!
Jonah
on the boat what did his boat represent? Fleeing from God. Jonah had a purpose
on that boat-he was a witness to God’s power. God was more powerful than they
when they tried to get to shore they couldn’t. Jonah tells them to throw him
off the boat. Jonah would rather die than obey God. Jonah did not know he would
be swallowed by a fish and have to go to Nineveh anyway. Just because Jonah ran
it didn’t change his assignment.
This is resonating with me. You’re
trying to run from the library and being a leader. You can run it’s your choice
but the assignment of being a leader won’t change. God called you to be a
leader and you are a leader at work and in Life Group. Your assignment won’t
change no matter how much you fight it and God it won’t change until You change. You have to change
your mind about being surprised that you are a leader. You’ve been a leader at
the library for 8 years! 8 Years! Get over your fear and disbelief. It’s time.
You are the boss-accept it-stop complaining!
So Jonah disobeyed God much like
you are doing when you snooze (I’ve been struggling with getting out of bed and
getting into God’s word and I believe God told me to stop snoozing so I’ve been
sinning and disobeying God by snoozing). I’m working on stopping the snoozing
and living the full life God has for me. So getting back into Jonah. What can
you learn from Jonah? When God gives you an assignment accept it and don’t run
from it. Allow God to work a miracle through you. God has sent you to the
library so many will give their hearts to Christ just by interacting with you.
Another thing you can learn from
Jonah: You can’t run from God. The assignment will still be there once you
repent and turn back to God. When you cry out to God he will intervene on his
timing. Don’t wait three days, repent now, don’t make God use drastic measures
to get through to you. Be a witness of God’s power. Don’t sleep while God is
trying to speak to you. Jonah was asleep on the boat, on the run and sleeping.
Don’t have a pity party. Don’t play the victim. Don’t value your comfort zone
more than you value following God. Don’t value your past more than God’s future
for you. Don’t be dramatic, Jonah would rather die than follow God’s commands.
Don’t let your pride put you in a tough situation. Let your pride go. Don’t let
your idea of what you want out of life get in the way of God’s plan for you.
Don’t wait for God to bring a violent storm before you follow his voice and his
command! Don’t make God angry! Be accountable, be responsible for your own
actions. Someone just may come to Christ by witnessing how you react to the
storms of life. What if a specific person will give their heart to Christ based
on how you treat them?
Don’t delay, cry out to God now,
don’t wait. You can lessen the storm by obeying the Lord. Wow Jonah’s prayer:
But I will offer sacrifices to you
with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows. For my salvation comes
from the Lord alone. Jonah 2:9
Then the Lord caused the fish to
spit Jonah out, it was when Jonah sought the Lord and after he said he would
fulfill his vow, it was after that he was spit out. It was after that, that he
was delivered out of the fish.
When you repent God changes his
mind about the wrath he would pour out. I know since Jesus God’s wrath is kept
back by the blood of Jesus. Jonah complained to the Lord, didn’t I say before I
left home that you would do this Lord? Jonah 4:2
Why was it so important to bring
the message to Nineveh through Jonah? It was not just for the people but for
Jonah to learn something too!
That is why I ran away to Tarshish.
I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God. Jonah 4:2
Jonah did not want the people to
repent, he wanted them destroyed. I have felt this way too about my enemy. My
enemy is the thorn in my side and I want them gone but I feel there’s a lesson I
need to learn from my enemy so God will not release me from that person until I
learn the lesson.
Slow to get angry and filled with
unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. Jonah 4:2
He is eager to save my enemy!
And as the sun grew hot, God arranged for a scorching east
wind to blow on Jonah. The sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and
wished to die. “Death is certainly better than living like this!” he exclaimed.
Jonah 4:8
Change is better than living like
this. It’s time to change before something worse happens. When people see what
the Lord has done for you and through you they will give their hearts to Christ
and make vows to the Lord.
Does Jonah fear the Lord? I think
not! He was not afraid to run in the opposite direction from Nineveh. What did
the waters represent for Jonah? Death. An escape from responsibility, an escape
from the calling God place on his life. He was a prophet. Sleep for me is an escape
from the calling God has on my life. No more snoozing! What did the waters represent
for God? Life, obedience of his servant, an instrument of his peace for the men
on the ship when the sea was calm. An instrument of his power. Water was a
conduit for his prophet to fulfil his purpose. The library is a conduit for you
to fulfill your purpose. God has a great calling on my life and I’m having a
hard time accepting that he can use me to fulfill that calling but as the quote
says,”God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called.”
