{"id":1510,"date":"2024-11-23T14:19:23","date_gmt":"2024-11-23T14:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/?p=1510"},"modified":"2024-11-23T14:19:25","modified_gmt":"2024-11-23T14:19:25","slug":"me-and-jonah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/?p=1510","title":{"rendered":"Me and Jonah"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I think I have found a kindred spirit in Jonah, but I am not proud of it.\u00a0 The biblical account of Jonah tells about God reaching out to save a very sinful nation.\u00a0 The man he chooses to send is unwilling to go.\u00a0 He hates these people, even though God cares for them.<\/p>\n

Jonah was called by God to preach to the people of Ninevah.\u00a0 Ninevah was the capital of Assyria and\u00a0 Assyrians were known for their vindictiveness and cruelty.\u00a0 They were the inventors of crucifixtion (Rome adopted the practice later).\u00a0 They were enemies of the Jews and thereby Jonah.\u00a0 \u00a0Jonah did NOT want to preach to them or warn them of danger, so he did not obey God.<\/p>\n

It was not that he was afraid of the Ninevites.\u00a0 It was because he knew God to be gracious and forgiving and if the Ninevites repented, he feared God would forgive them.\u00a0 He did NOT want that!\u00a0 So he ran in the opposite direction, on a ship, was famously thrown overboard and was swallowed by a BIG FISH.\u00a0 God can get your attention!.\u00a0 He finally relented in the belly of the fish, was upchucked onto dry land, and reluctantly went to Ninevah.<\/p>\n

Sure enough!\u00a0 They repented…..and Jonah was MAD!<\/p>\n

I definitely see myself in Jonah.\u00a0 I have found a lack of forgiveness and even animosity in my own heart toward other Christians\u00a0 who, in my opinion, act ungodly…especially if it is directed at me.\u00a0 And God has been speaking to me about this.\u00a0 Lately, he has used the story of Jonah.\u00a0 I realize my problem in forgiving them is that I think they are getting off too easy.\u00a0 They belong to God and God will forgive them …. and it just seems unfair!<\/p>\n

But it is terrible for me to be glad I don’t have to pay for my sins, and yet want someone else to have to pay for theirs! I owe my life to\u00a0 Jesus Christ who paid my debt with His own blood on the cross.\u00a0 I will be eternally grateful that He found a way to pay the price for me.\u00a0 Why am I not just as grateful that my fellow Christians are also not under condemnation for their mistakes? Why do I want them to have to pay….or at least say I’m sorry??\u00a0 \u00a0I think it is because I tend to think that my debt was small and theirs is larger.\u00a0 \u00a0 I think I think wrongly!<\/p>\n

God\u00a0 is teaching me that my debt is not small, it is HUGE!\u00a0 But Christ paid it anyway.\u00a0 \u00a0Instead of being grateful for\u00a0 what He has done for me, and wanting others to experience the same wonderful forgiveness, I am using a different standard to judge others.\u00a0 Hypocritical me.<\/p>\n

After the Ninevites repented and Jonah realized they were not going to be destroyed, he chose to go out east of the city and pout!<\/p>\n

It might not be comfortable to realize the depth of sin in my own heart, but it is needed.\u00a0 It puts God’s gracious sacrifice on my behalf in a clearer light.\u00a0 \u00a0It makes it much harder to turn around and say He should not do that for someone else.\u00a0 \u00a0I need to be glad he does that for His children.\u00a0 So the uncomfortable, in the end, brings comfort.<\/p>\n

God is not mocked…..but He does go after sinners…..to redeem them.\u00a0 I need to let God handle others, as He has handled me.\u00a0 He came to save ANY sinner who will have Him as Lord.\u00a0\u00a0 So I aim to give up my desire to be Lord over someone else….trying to leave all my personal Ninevites in His hands.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think I have found a kindred spirit in Jonah, but I am not proud of it.\u00a0 The biblical account of Jonah tells about God reaching out to save a very sinful nation.\u00a0 The man he chooses to send is unwilling to go.\u00a0 He hates these people, even though God cares for them. Jonah was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5WySj-om","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1510"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1522,"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1510\/revisions\/1522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doctormomx4.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}