My Own Personal Nineveh

The book of a Jonah is a book that can relate beautifully to pretty much any Christ-follower’s walk. God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell them of His coming judgment, but Jonah disobeyed, ran the other way and took a ship to Tarshish. His disobedience caused a horrible storm, so he told the other men on the boat to throw him overboard and the storm would stop. The storm came to an end and God sent a huge fish to swallow Jonah whole. He stayed in the belly of the whale for 3 days until the fish spit him out after Jonah cried out to God. Jonah finally went to Nineveh and told the people to repent. The people reacted by repenting and fasting, and God spared them from destruction. Jonah sat on a mountaintop and complained to God. He was very angry that God had spared them, but The Lord responded by showing Jonah that He had the power and authority to condemn or show mercy. The choice was His.

            The reason I said I thought the book of Jonah can relate to pretty much any person who is on a journey following Christ, is because there will always come a time when God will ask us to do something or go somewhere and we try to run in the opposite direction. For me, that time was about a year and a half ago when I felt like God was calling me to do this internship. It was the last thing I wanted to do; my own personal “Nineveh”. I already had a perfect little plan in mind and started running the other way to “Tarshish”. But God kept drawing me back to Himself and His plan. Finally, after fighting God and crying out in prayer, I arrived at Nineveh. I jumped in the deep end head first, but God didn’t leave me alone. He moved and did big things. But like Jonah, I felt like God had told me what He was going to do. I had a picture in my mind of what it was I had to look forward to, of what was going to happen. I’m now sitting on a mountain top overlooking the whole situation, overlooking my Nineveh, and complaining and saying to God, “When are You going to move? Why aren’t You doing the things You said You would do? What about the things You told me and the promises You made?” My answer came in God’s answer to Jonah: “Because I am God and you are not. Do I not have the power to choose?”  I feel like this is the ultimate message of Jonah; that whatever we think we are in control of, we are wrong. God has a plan for everything and is in control of every situation. The difficult part is trusting that He holds it all and knows what is best. Which is funny, because looking at Who He Is and His character, how could we not trust Him? But there is good news! God knows us intimately and knows that we struggle. He delights when we make even baby steps towards Him. Just as He had compassion on Nineveh when they turned towards Him, He shows compassion and understanding in our own lives. All we have to do is look to Him, trust Him and pray like we’re in the belly of a whale.

“For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me…But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to You; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!” Jonah 2:3&9