From the inside out

At church on Sunday a sermon was preached about Jonah, and it got me to thinking about this guy. Here he is, a prophet of God, yet gets mad at God, tells God off, and God let him do it! It's amazing to me how much God put up with b/c this guy is God's creation, yet he had the nerve to talk back to the Almighty and live to tell about it! Just goes to show that God never ever will give up on us. Jonah disobeyed, did what he wanted, and ran away trying to get away from what God told him to do. In Jonah's case God wanted him to preach to the capital of what was then Assyria, and these people did awful things to the Jews, so the Jewish people hated them. This is why Jonah was so mad at God—he thought that God should annihilate these people who were so cruel to God's chosen, but God's mercy prevailed. Thank God His mercies are new for us each and every day. Anyway, Jonah gets on this boat, and God sends a storm b/c He is not going to let Jonah go that easily. It's comforting to note that God ran after Jonah, even in his disobedience, because his love never fails. So Jonah gets thrown into the sea, and God arranges for Jonah to be hidden inside a huge fish, being bounced around its stomach as the fish navigates Jonah towards God's destination. All this time God is breaking Jonah down and he begins to pray in that awful place, crying out to God. Jonah finds God in that dark place, a place filled with stomach acid and other creatures being digested by it. A nasty, dark, stifling place constantly rocking to and fro, up and down, falling forward as the fish dived down, getting covered in slime. There were no benches to sit on, no stable place to rest. Everything was constantly shifting and moving and extremely uncomfortable. He had no idea how long he would be in there. He was broken in this place of misery and darkness and uncertainty. He acknowledges God did this, he doesn't blame the people that threw him overboard, or the fish, he knows God's hand is all over every nasty circumstance he is facing. Jonah says he is in the abyss which is a deep immeasurable space, a bottomless void that seems never ending. Jonah went to the very bottom and felt like he was in prison forever. His hope was gone, he felt crushed by the weight of his hopelessness and helplessness---then revelation comes---he earnestly and seriously remembered the Lord which made him remember who he was too. He repented and declares the truth that God is a savior who saves! He comes to his senses in the midst of the darkness, the cold, the hunger, the loneliness, covered in muck and mire, with nothing to hold on to---in the middle of all this he begins to thank God and surrenders his will to do God's will. Nothing changes for him until he bows the knee in surrender, and when that happens, God releases Jonah from the darkness and deposits him in the very place he ran away from. Jonah goes ahead and obeys even though he completely disagrees with God, and God is okay with that---He says in His word to obey is better than sacrifice. Even though Jonah's prejudices were still intact God is pleased with his obedience, so God uses Jonah in spite of what his attitudes are. This story gives me hope that if God can look past Jonah's obvious issues and still use him, that God will use me in spite of myself. The first step that Jonah took was surrendering to God. The next step was the attitude, and as we obey God (even if we don't want to) it is a fact that the act of obedience will bring about a heart change in us. I remember a teacher I couldn't stand the sight of, and my youth pastor told me to act out what love was upon her. I didn't want to, but he said to me that as I do the acts of love the feelings will eventually follow. So I did what he said, and he was right! God used that teacher to show me my musical abilities. I don't think I would be here today if not for her---and I did end up really loving her. So Jonah's obedience---our obedience---does change us from the inside out…-v