It is never too late to be who you could have been...
The book of Jonah speaks in the first Chapter:
Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. (Jonah 1:1-2)
He was a prophet of God being asked to go to Nineveh and preach.
But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa;and he found a ship going to Tarshish (Jonah 1:3)
Instead, he ran away from God.
What was he thinking?
That he could hide from God in Tarshish?
so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.(Jonah 1:3)
Did Jonah think that he could really get away?
But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. (Jonah 1:4)
We know the rest of the story.
After the ship crew had thrown away stuff into the water to lighten the ship so they won't sink, the storm continued raging. So they asked among themselves who could have been responsible for that calamity. To which Jonah admitted that he was the one the Lord was after and asked to be thrown into the sea.
Then the sea calmed.
Only with obedience did the wrath of the sea dissipate.
We can question all we want the veracity of this story.
Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. (Jonah 1:17)
Scholars question whether it is even possible for a man to be swallowed by a fish and stay alive for three days
They keep digging and digging and missed the message
That is so human of us.
To busy ourselves with the ways of the world that we miss the ways of the Lord
As if finding what they think is a flaw could strip the Lord of His holiness
And this is what the enemy uses to lure us to sin
The Enemy plants seeds of doubt and make our paths laden with things that would make it easy for us to disobey God
God's ways are simple but they aren't always easy
God's simple instruction was for Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach.
But it isn't easy.
Nineveh is today's equivalent of Northern Iraq where you can find the most brutal people.
Their ways in times of battle are cruel.
One could understand why Jonah chose to flee.
And the enemy made it easy for him to run away.
But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.(Jonah 1:3)
An available ship
Money for fare
Off he went.
But there are hidden messages there.
Whenever you went from God, you always PAY for it (so he paid the fare)
Anytime, you disobey, it will always bring you DOWN (and went down into it)
And this sin of disobedience will take you farther
Like Jonah when he had to be thrown out into the sea --farther down where a huge fish could find him and swallow him.
We always choose to take the easy way out
And when we choose the easy way out, we MISS OUT on the opportunity to be used by God
Yet we say we are God's children.
We claim that we belong in the family of God..
That we are believers
When the ship's crew realized that someone on the ship was responsible for the calamity,
Jonah admitted he was the one.
And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.(Jonah 1:9)
I am Hebrew and I fear the Lord
I am Hebrew and I fear the Lord
I am Hebrew and I fear the Lord
Let that reply sink in.
To claim that he was Hebrew--that he was from God's tribe,
To claim that he feared the Lord
YET, he fled when God asked him to go to Nineveh
It is the same as saying:
I am from God's land, I fear him. I will run away from him because what he asks me to do is difficult.
That is indeed an easy way out.
And when we take the easy way out, we don't only miss out on serving the Lord,
we also cause others to lose out.
By Jonah disobeying God, the people of Nineveh lose out on being saved.
When we sin and flee from God, we prevent His work being done through us
Jonah was being commissioned to be God's ambassador
AS though God is making his appeal through Jonah
Our sin impacts other people in our lives.
A divorce impacts the lives of the children caught in between fighting parents
What is our sin costing others?
Corruption in the government impacts the lives of constituents who are forced to live in poverty because the corrupt government officials chose to put the funds in their own pockets
All sins have repercussions in the lives of the people around us, if not our own lives
When we take the easy way out, truth be told, it is NEVER easy.
It is NEVER easy. It cannot be punctuated enough.
God will send storms -- so that come hell or high water, we will know that we are being pursued by God
But even these storms are not meant to break you.
God used the storm to BRING Jonah back.
This is how storms are used in our lives to bring us back to the Lord.
So that we may learn the lesson in the fish that swallowed Jonah
God knew that the storm is going to get Jonah.
Imagine God giving instructions to the big fish
"Go. Save Jonah. Swallow him."
These are of course not the exact words of instruction
but nevertheless, the big fish obeyed.
The fish was more in tune with heaven. It knows to not complain and just OBEY.
See?
When we choose the easy way out, it is NEVER easy.
Because there could be storms and fishes that could swallow you.
Let us remember, that everyday a ship is going to pull up and offer us an easy way out.
The enemy makes sure that the options for an easy way out is always available.
In a way that it would be easier to choose the enemy's offer.
When we are in tune with God, we learn to recognize the ship.
In our lives, many of us are maybe at different spots now
Some of us are standing on the dock thinking whether to set foot on a boat/ship.
Some of us have already paid the fare
Some of us are already in the belly of a whale.
No matter where we are already at, we can always repent and pray.
Being on our knees is always a good thing
Our battlecry: Fight your battles on your knees
And then we can TURN BACK
Do a 180.
Make it right with God
And OBEY
It is never too late to be who you could have been...
Because when we are called and we choose to run away,
Chances are, we would be facing a storm that'll bring us back
So that we can make things right
and we could be who God wants us to be.
It is never too late to turn back.
The decisions we make today determine the stories we're going to tell tomorrow
No comments:
Post a Comment