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WELCOME TO GOD FOCUS THIS MORNING

THE TITLE FOR TODAY’S EPISODE:  THE LONG WAY OR GOD’S WAY

—JONAH DID WANT TO GO TO NINEVAH HE ENDED UP THERE ANYWAY

We can do things the easy way or the hard way. God sometimes asks us to do things that makes us uncomfortable. Fear of failure is often one of the biggest excuses. Do we go where he asks or do we take the long road there? God asked Jonah to go to Ninevah. He didn’t want to go there, he felt they were all evil.  Maybe there was a little fear there. He had many excuses to not go.  He wanted to go the opposite direction toward Tarshish.

He put it off and then started on a journey the opposite way. He went to Joppa and got on a boat. A storm came up.  The storm was rough on the boat, and they were afraid that it was going to sink. Jonah knew it was because of his disobedience. He told them if they toss him overboard, they would be spared. The men on the boat tossed Jonah overboard.

God had prepared a fish that opened up its mouth and swallowed him.  He was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. He prayed and asked God to deliver him and he said he would go to Ninevah. After his ordeal Jonah went to Ninevah and God saved many.

Jonah took the long way around to get to where God wanted. God understood Jonah could reach a lot of people that is why he told him to go to Ninevah in the first place. How often does God ask us to do something and we end up taking the long way there but end up in our Ninevah.

We all want to be used by God and want to do the right thing. Often our idea of what we want to do and God’s idea are different.  Fear, doubt and many things will cause us to run the opposite way if we are not careful. Either way we will end up in Ninevah. We can be obedient and just step out in faith and go or we can take the long way there. I want to be obedient.

It could be the reason God used the big fish to redirect him and not something else was the people of Ninevah and their belief system. They believed in a god that was half man and half fish. Sort of like Neptune today. That false god was named Oannes. They believed he came out of the water to earth to teach them how to write and about art and science. This was many years before Jonah.

God used their beliefs to show them who he was. Can you imagine believing in a half man and half fish deity only to see a large fish come up on land and spit Jonah out onto the shore. Then this man came preaching the true God and repentance. No wonder the whole city came to life with faith in the new to them God that Jonah preached.

It proves that even in our times of failure and lack of faith, God has already factored it all in. He knows how we are going to react and he allows for our time of dragging our feet. To put us exactly at the right place at the right time.

Remember Jonah, the next time God asks you do to something that takes you outside of your comfort zone.

Until next time,

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

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