Journal 3-1-14

Jonah 1:1-17

            Sorry, but you may need to read this entire story. It’s about Jonah and the whale. A story I’ve heard of since I was a kid. Have you ever turned from the call of God on your life and found yourself trapped and plagued with so many calamities that you might as well have been swallowed by a giant fish? I have.

I think this story shows perfectly what happens in life when we run from God as Jonah has done. Is there something in your life that you are doing that you know is not what God wants you to do? Are we so proud or selfish or full of ourselves that we think we can just run from the call of God on our life? Do you find yourself in the belly of a whale today? Are you depressed with your life, miserable? Do you think all is lost? Are you lying in bed or on the couch, are you trying to fill your life with things that you know are not of God because it’s easier? Have you given up? Don’t have the energy to get off your butt and listen to God and what His plans for your life are? What is so miserable in your life that you can’t pick up some type of nourishment off of a plate to feed yourself? Do you not know that God chooses us and that we cannot hide?

He will let our lives get to be so miserable that we have no choice but to listen to Him and obey the things He has asked us to do. A few scriptures come to mind that are motivation to me. They tell me that if God wants us, we will be His and it doesn’t matter how low we have to sink for Him to get us, He’s going to win always. We can’t fight the will of God and win! So why keep trying?

In reading Jonah’s prayer, I see that God let him get so low and in a spot so miserable that most people would think it’s over. Jonah 2:1-10, read it. In verse 6, God brought his life up from the pit. When life was fainting away, Jonah remembered the Lord and his prayer came to the Lord (v. 7). “Salvation belongs to the Lord” (v.9). God controls everything and will get His way. Why should we fight it?

In reading 1 Corinthians 5:11-6:18, I see that God will reconcile with us if He has chosen us to be His people. (Please read the verses). Philippians 1:6 says “He will finish the work in us He has begun and bring it to completion” and 1 Corinthians 10:13 “no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man”. God will give you a direction to run and a way out, but we have to be sick of the pit we are in and cry out to God. Then when he offers an escape, a salvation, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I helped you” (2 Corinthians 6:2), we need to take it before it gets worse and we too find ourselves in the belly of a whale! Remember, He said His power is made perfect in our weakness! How weak are we willing to let ourselves get before we also take a knee and ask for help as Jonah did?

Prayer: Lord, today I pray for us Psalm 51:10-12 “create in us a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within us. Cast us not away from your presence, and take not your holy spirit from us. Restore us to the joy of your salvation and uphold us with a willing spirit.” Father God, when we find our lives to be like Jonah’s and in the belly of a whale, please give us enough sense to do something about it before it’s too late and gets any worse.

Random Thought: My whole life I’ve been fighting with addiction, co-dependency, failure, fear, rejection, brokenness, and lack of motivation. I’ve had no endurance. I’ve come up many times only to find myself back in the belly of the whale, in jail, broke and depressed, ready to give up on life. For 42 years I’ve struggled and been running from God just like Jonah. I think when I get to heaven I’ll ask the Lord why He made me so darn stupid not to see all that He had for me at a much younger age! I wander if it had anything to do with dyslexia lol. Whatever the case, I’m tired of fighting with God. He’s obviously got a purpose for me and I think that life will be a whole lot easier if I just let Him have His way. I’m going to quit fighting with God today and follow His instruction, listen to His voice, and try to obey His every demand.

            I’m hoping that this message and my testimony will help people to realize that we will not win the ridiculous fight against God and it would make more sense just to follow His direction. I hope that my children and my girlfriend will also see that living a life of sin is like swimming upstream in a swift current! No matter how hard you try, you just keep going backwards.

P.S. I realize that most are lazy and just want to read what is written. Most won’t get off the couch to get the Bible on the night stand not 10 feet from them to read some of the verses that are important to read so that God can also speak to you. Funny thing is, to those people on the couch…if they knew there was a spider or a mouse underneath it right now they’d be standing on the night stand with the Bible in their hand ready to smack the poor critter God sent for them to get the “truth” in their hands! Do I need to call any names? Read the darn thing!

            In chapter 4, Jonah shows typical human selfishness and also shows God’s sense of humor I think! I can just see some people I know being just like Jonah.