Jonah's Timeless Message

Jonah's Timeless Message

God will engage all creation to bring His people (Jonah, in this case) in line with His will. He will bring trials, peril, deliverance, mercy, comfort, and discomfort in order to draw His people closer to Him.

The book of Jonah is all about God working on His servant Jonah.

Application for today

So, what is God allowing/bringing into our lives to draw us closer to Him?

Do we even recognize God's sovereign hand in our own lives?

Can we truly say that God is in control of everything that happens to us and is working it for our good?

Is God confronting us with a hard heart? A rebellious attitude? A desire for our will instead of His?

Heb 12:4-11 expands on the timeless message of Jonah:

 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; 5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons,

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
Nor faint when you are reproved by Him;
6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines,
And He scourges every son whom He receives.”

7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?

10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.

11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Discipline can be a punishment, but it can also be training. Anyone who has trained for an event, whether it is a race, a game, a dance, a spelling bee, or another competition, knows that they must deny themselves certain things and engage in other, perhaps not so enjoyable, things in order to be successful in the event.

Here is God, the greatest Father and Coach in the entire universe, designing specific trials and trainings for each of His unique children in order to mold them into the image of His Son, Jesus. We are dealt with as sons!