Tag Archives: Jonah

September 21, 2015 · 5:30 AM

Second Chances

  
I was listening to Carlos Whittaker’s song “God of Second Chances” the other day. I tried to think of the people in the Bible who had been given second chances. David came to mind first. He had served God as king of Israel, wrote praise songs, brought the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem and then had an affair with a woman. He then had her husband murdered to cover it up. He asked God to forgive him and was given a second chance to continue serving as the king and spiritual leader of Israel.

Jonah was another person who was given a second chance. He had been called to be a preacher, but ran from that calling. After heading in the opposite direction of where God called him to, the Lord sent a violent storm to stop him. He decided he would rather die than to be a preacher, so he had others throw him into the sea. As he was drowning, a giant fish swallowed him whole. He had a change of heart while inside the fish, and God agreed to give him a second chance. He spared his life and with his second chance, an entire city was saved.

Peter was a person who also needed a second chance. After following Jesus for three years, he denied he even knew Jesus to save his own skin. Peter was distraught at what he had done. He didn’t get to ask Jesus for forgiveness at that point, but we know he was forgiven. Jesus found him after the resurrection and asked him to feed His sheep. Because of Peter’s second chance, the early Church was born.

In Matthew 18:21, Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” (NLT) He was asking Jesus, “How many chances should I give someone?” Jesus replied, “No, not seven times, but seventy times seven!” (NLT) Jesus then told a story of someone who had been forgiven much, but wasn’t willing to forgive someone who wronged him a little. The person who wouldn’t give a second chance to someone else was given the initial penalty he deserved.

If God is the God of second chances, you and I are to be people of second chances. To be like Christ is to forgive even those who continually wrong us when they ask for mercy. In Matthew 6:15, Jesus bluntly said, “But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins” (NLT). Just like God will forgive you for as many sins as you commit, we are to forgive others for their many sins. God has a history of giving people second chances. You and I can start today and write our own history of being people who give second chances. 

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September 23, 2014 · 7:59 AM

Prayer Changes Us

In II Timothy 2:1, Paul says, “I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf and give thanks for them.” When I read those words, I wonder if they challenged Timothy as much as they do me. Paul didn’t tell him to just pray for people he liked. He didn’t tell him to just pray for Christians. He told him to pray for all people and to ask God to help them.

To me, that’s hard to do. There are people that selfishly I don’t want God to help. I’m like Jonah a lot of times. I know God’s desire is to bring others to repentance, but I don’t always act in accordance with that. When God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, he disobeyed because he didn’t like them. We know that because later, when God spared the city, Jonah threw a hissy fit. He said, “I knew you were a merciful God. You are eager to turn back from destroying people.”

I wonder if Timothy was beginning to show the same signs. I wonder if he was being selective in who he shared the Gospel with. It’s not up to us to be selective with it or with our prayers. God doesn’t want anyone to perish. When we truly get that, we will start praying for others. We will intercede on their behalf. We won’t hold back from sharing the Gospel because we know that’s what God’s heart is.

God knows we let our human emotions get in the way of His will. We let how we feel about someone to override how He feels for them. Paul knew the remedy for the situation is to pray for them and to give thanks for them. When we begin to pray blessings on people we don’t like and thank God for them, our vision of them changes. We stop seeing them as humans and start seeing them as souls. We quit looking at their value to us, and see the value God places on them.

I’ve always heard that prayer changes things. One of the biggest things it changes is us. That’s why Paul urges Timothy to pray. He knew as a young minister, he could fall into the trap of being selective with the Gospel. He knew that Timothy needed a greater vision. One that included all men, not just a few. It’s a vision that you and I need today. The way we get it is to begin praying for all and asking God to help them. If we truly want to see the world changed, we have to get on our knees and spend some time interceding.

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May 10, 2013 · 7:37 AM

Handling Disappointment

How do you handle disappointment? Think of a time recently when you were really wanting something and then it didn’t happen. Did you cross your arms, stick your bottom lip out and stomp around? I know that’s how kids handle disappointment, but are we really that different when we grow up? We still like to have our pity parties when things don’t happen the way we think they should. We may not be stomping around on the outside, but we are on the inside!

Jonah is a prime example of how a lot of us handle things. When God was able to get him to obey and to go to Nineveh, he was hoping they wouldn’t repent. When they did and God showed mercy on them, he was furious and threw a temper tantrum. In Jonah 4:5 it says, “He went out of the city to the east and sat down in a sulk.” While he was sulking, God arranged for a leafed tree to grow up to provide him with shade from the blistering sun.

That night, God sent a worm to eat the leaves. The next day was hot. With the shade gone, Jonah sulked even more and said he was better off dead. I love verses 10-11. God said, “How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted it or watered it.” When I read that, it made think, “Do I really have a reason to let my disappointment turn to anger?”

Disappointment is a part of life. What you do with it is your choice. You can choose to sulk, stomp around, be depressed about it or you can learn from the situation, see it from a different perspective and move forward. Some of the greatest people in history faced huge disappointments. It was how they handled it that made the difference. They took the opportunity to learn from the situation rather than to be upset.

While we cannot control the circumstances around us, our attitude is our choice. We choose whether to stomp off like Jonah or to say, “God, that isn’t how I saw that happening. I’m not happy how it happened. What can you show me in this situation to help me in the future?” It’s ok to not be happy that things didn’t go according to plan. It’s not ok to throw a pity party and think that life is over because it didn’t.

God sees your life beyond today. He sees the path ahead of you and often allows things to happen in our lives to help us get to the destination of His choice, not ours. When our plan doesn’t match His, disappointment is the result. The good news is that God still loves us when we are disappointed or even disappoint Him. He still has a plan for us and uses those times to shape us into who He wants us to become. So, again, how do you handle disappointment?

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