Corona Devo 97

It's embarrassing to say, but I have been in a spiritual pout for a little while.  

Have you ever gotten miffed about something in life, and it perturbs you so much that it causes a separation between you and God?  You just can't connect with Him in Bible study or prayer?

It also produces a gap between you and your family and your happiness, and well--everything.  But even so, I was still choosing to sit in my pout, rather than step out and get over it.  And so, I stayed captive to it.  As long as I held on to my resentment about the situation--it held me captive from connecting with Jesus and the rest of my people and my life.  Not good. 

Am I the only one who's been here?  I hope that you are more pious than me, and that you cannot relate to this at all.  Bless you.

I have a buddy in the Bible named Jonah who went through a similar (self-pity) period.  God told him to go to Nineveh to warn the Ninevites to stop sinning and clean up their lives.  Jonah thought the Ninevites were too far gone in their sin, and He also didn't think they deserved the mercy that God was offering.  At first, Jonah "hid" from God.  

I have tried that too.  Turns out God is the ultimate Seeker.  We can't hide our feelings or our motives from Him.  He created our hearts and He knows us quite well.  

A few minor events transpire in Jonah's life, like being swallowed and then regurgitated by a whale.  And then He gets God's message, and (still reluctantly) goes and speaks God's warning of repentance to Nineveh.  They actually listened and changed their ways! 😃  

Jonah was reluctant to obey God's commands because he didn't think the Ninevites deserved the second chance from God.  Similarly, we have been forgiven so much, and yet we still continue to be self-righteous when it comes to sharing God's grace and mercy, depending on how a situation or person is affecting us.

After his proclamations saved more than 120,000 people in Nineveh from destruction, Jonah decides to take a seat and brood about not-wanting to have done this.  He's crabby and feels entitled and I have been there more often than I would like to admit.

God grows him a plant to provide shade (and to demonstrate that He is the provider of relief and mercy in all of our lives--Jonah's/the Ninevites/yours/mine.  Then as Jonah is enjoying the gift of the plant's shade (symbolic of God's salvation/forgiveness/mercy), the Lord removes the tree. 

4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”  ~Jonah 4:4-11

Sometimes we need to learn lessons when we are behaving like small spoiled children.  I see what God was doing in reminding Jonah about where his provision (and salvation!) comes from, and the Lord is also reminding me.  

All that we have is a provision of the Lord.  The money we make or children we bear are a result of gifts that the Lord has blessed us with.  The times of challenge or drought in our life are not punishments, but due seasons that all experience, and they are opportunities for us to humble ourselves and establish intimacy with the Lord through our humility and reliance on Him. 

And in keeping in step with Jonah's message to the Ninevites--I never want any situation or bad attitude to prevent me from sharing God's light and hope with another.  We are God's prophets of today, and proclaiming His message of redemption and salvation should never be thwarted by our own pouting.

But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?" ~Jonah 4:4

No, it is not right for us to be angry.  If you have anything that is keeping your focus and connection from Jesus--lay it down today.  He has cities for us to save in His name!

Blessings,

sarah

https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com/