For the next few weeks, we are going to be peering into the life of Jonah.
Most of us are familiar with the story of this man’s life.
I encourage you to take time to read through the entire book of Jonah, it’s only 4 chapters.
The book opens like this,
“Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.” Jonah 1:1-3 (ESV)
God gave Jonah direction, Jonah didn’t like the way things looked like they were going, and in reaction, he tried to cut God off from his life.
Jonah’s level of fleeing from God can seem ridiculous and superficially unrelatable. After all he was a prophet, a man whose very job was to hear from God and bring His messages to His people. And then one day he gets a message he does not want to deliver, and tries to physically run and hide from God.
But, I want to consider this week how easily we can slip into Jonah’s gut reaction to flee God’s presence.
We may not hop on a boat or take our chances playing a game of hide-and-seek with an all-knowing, all-present God.
But, we can be guilty of shutting God out from situations in our life where we don’t like the way they are going.
It wasn’t necessarily that Jonah didn’t want to do what God asked him to do. It seems like his hardened heart would have even enjoyed bringing news of doom to these evil-doers and watching them hear how they will pay for how they’ve chosen to live.
His issue was that he didn’t trust God to react the way he felt they deserved.
Jonah didn’t trust God to do what he wanted Him to do.
In chapter 4, Jonah follows through with what was asked of him and he is frustrated with God, saying,
“ O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Jonah 4:2-3 (ESV)
Jonah was afraid that what God would do isn’t what he wanted Him to do. So, initially, he decided to not even give Him the chance. In the end, Jonah was right. God’s merciful and gracious character saved the people of Nineveh instead of pouring out upon them what they deserved.
It seems Jonah had the head knowledge of the character of this merciful God he followed, but his heart stayed dark, hidden, and bitter.
This is how we become if we don’t shed light on the honest parts of our hearts that we are afraid or too hurt to bring into the presence of God and be real about their existence with God.
Week Three Challenge: Spend this week asking God to search your heart and make it known to you if there are areas you are choosing to flee from the presence of the Lord in your own life. There may be areas you’ve swept under the rug of denial for so long that you have forgotten about them, but God can bring them to mind in an instant.
Maybe it’s a road that you feel He is asking you to walk down, and you don’t like the looks of it.
Maybe it’s the way He has dealt with a situation in your life that you felt should have gone differently.
Maybe you liked how your life was and then it changed, and you’ve spent your energy grasping to get back what was, while God’s asking you to move forward to His new and different life for you.
Maybe where you are in life right now is not where you think you should be. You see others around you have what you want, those who haven’t dedicated their lives to following God like you have. And a part of you feels like you aren’t receiving what you deserve from Him.
These are intense areas that almost feel wrong to be honest about and bring to God, and feel so much easier to keep it out of His presence.
But, the problem isn’t feeling them. The problem is when we decide not to acknowledge and deal with their existence.
Our heart issues that we keep in the dark affect our relationship with our God.
These issues and true feelings we don’t bring into the light are as hidden from God as Jonah was on that boat to Tarshish.
So why let another day go by allowing our hearts to become like Jonah’s?
Instead of letting bitterness callus our hearts and trying to push these areas further and further out of the presence of our God, let’s face these areas head on this week.
If you notice, never in the book of Jonah does it talk about him laying out his heart to God. He gives a prayer in chapter 2 expressing remorse for how he knows he’s disobeyed God and is grateful for God saving him in his darkest moments. But, he never actually gives God his full heart. At the end, even though he outwardly followed God’s instructions, his heart is in just as dark, bitter, blind distress as when he first stepped foot on the boat to Tarshish.
Let that not be our story.
Father, open our eyes to areas we have been trying to keep out of Your presence. We are desperate for You to shed light where we’ve pushed to keep in the dark. Remind us of Your grace and mercy for us, that you are slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. You are safe to bring our hardest, darkest pieces to. Let the weights we carry, that we were never meant to, become so heavy in our hearts that we cannot ignore them anymore.
From one of His children to another,
Christi