Hopefully you were able to read the Book of Jonah at some point last week.
There’s so much we can learn through these people, like Jonah, who God chose to lay out for us how they walked through life.
This week we will be looking at Jonah again, but looking deeper into intimacy when it comes to his personal relationship with God.
When God called Jonah onto a road he was not comfortable with, He fled.
But, after God literally saved his life, Jonah was given another chance to follow what God had asked of him:
“Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.” Jonah 3:1-5 (ESV)
“When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.” Jonah 3:10-4:1 (ESV)
God allowed Jonah to witness and be a part of this amazing act of grace and mercy on these people, and yet Jonah ended coldhearted and angry.
How can this happen?
How could walking through this entire experience not radically change him?
How could Jonah get a front row seat to such an incredible display of love, and respond with the same angry attitude that led him to flee from God in the beginning?
When we read through his journey, we don’t see a lot of relational intimacy between him and God. Jonah’s actions were out of relationless duty.
We are at risk of letting the same happen inside of us.
Jonah spent all his energy keeping his distance from God and fighting against what He had for him, instead of walking alongside Him on the road He called him onto.
And in the end, he reached the destination without any transformation.
I used to work at a spa while I was in college.
Trust me, it sounds a lot more glamorous than it was.
The spa itself was beautiful!
But my job, alongside my co-workers, was to keep the facade of serene luxury by taking care that anything less than that was out of sight. Inevitably this always included dirty laundry, sweaty robes, emptying trash bags, and unclogging toilets.
We had our list of to-do’s that were the same everyday, and then our boss would let us know whatever else we needed to get done that day.
We only really went to our boss when we had questions about what she asked us to do, or we had completed whatever task she gave us last and now needed the next task.
Receiving my assignments from her was the extent of my communication with her. She was a decent person, and I was grateful for her giving me the job.
But, I had no real relationship with her.
The people I had actual relationships with were the ones alongside me while doing the dirty work: my coworkers that I spent time getting to know and sharing my life with. Working hours filled with lugging laundry and refilling fresh cucumber water containers meant hours of joking around, unloading life’s problems, and talking about literally anything that would come up.
These were the people I actually did life with and, in turn, had a real relationship with.
You can listen and follow someone without having an actual, intimate relationship with them.
Our prayers can turn into this.
When we choose to follow Christ, we choose to listen and obey when He directs us. Absolutely.
But He wants, and we need, so much more than that.
God doesn’t involve us and work within and alongside us so that we remain relationless soldiers taking orders. He uses us so that as we follow Him, the closer we get to Him, the more of Him we see, and the more we get to understand who He is.
Our purpose in following after God is not necessarily all about where He is bringing you, but also how He gets us there, too.
So if you’re gritting through the path God has you on while closing your heart off in protection or anger where He has you, you’re very possibly missing the purpose of what you’re walking.
Remember there’s purpose in the dirt under your feet, and God wants to walk in it with you.
Don’t set your goal to just get through it and out the other side. It will come with or without your heart transforming in how God wants to mold you and teach you of Himself.
Don’t just put your head down and push through where He has you and let your prayer life and communication with Him be cold and void of an intimate relationship.
Jonah missed out on perhaps the most life changing part of following God’s commands: the transformation that He does within us on the journey.
Don’t deem his purposeful steps for you as purposeless.
If you stop and think of your own relationship and communication with God lately, has it become more dutiful than intimate?
Have you fallen into focusing only on asking God for the next step He has for you, and missing out on the relationship with Him?
Is it possible to fall into dutifully following God, yet miss out on having an intimate, growing relationship with Him? Absolutely.
Jonah did.
How did Jonah’s relationship with God change from chapter one to the end of the book? Maybe he was more grateful for Him saving his life, but their actual relationship was no closer, no more intimate, no less dutiful as before he followed Him into Nineveh.
I don’t want my relationship with God to become task-based. Or for the only time I come to Him be to find out what He wants me to do next. These are important. But, it’s partial compared to what my relationship with my Creator could and should be.
Would you characterize your relationship with God task-oriented?
Is your relationship all about the ‘do, do, do’ and missing the ‘be’?
We’re good at the ‘do’.
‘Do’ is productive.
‘Do’ has something to show for itself on paper.
‘Do’ can feel like proof of progress.
But ‘being’ with God along the way is where our hearts change.
‘Being’ is transformative.
‘Being’ becomes the fuel and kindle and spark of our ‘do’.
Week Four’s Challenge: What if you went the entire week not spending all of your time asking God for direction or what task to do next? Trust Him enough that He will let you know what He has for you without you needing to only seek that this week. And spend your time diving into who He is.
If this is very difficult for you, as I found it was for me, it may give some insight into your own relationship becoming more dutiful and task-based than intimately seeking who God is and being able to sit in awe of Him as He shows Himself to you.
If you need some guidance to start, here are a few passages to help you meditate on who God is and spend time gazing into that instead of tasks and duty:
Isaiah 40, Psalm 46, John 12:1-8
Following God’s commands that He’s given us in His word and the direction He gives us in our lives is non-negotiable. But, are you following Him out of your love for Him cultivated by the time you spend with Him, or out of duty?
Father, bring our hearts back to Your heart, away from a cold dutiful relationship, and into the intimacy You desire for us.
From one of His children to another,
Christi