Jonah 3:1-10
1 And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, 2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. 3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. 4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. 5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 6 for word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. 9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? 10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
Welcome to the new and improved Monday Morning Mediations with Elder Mike. I am so excited about the new look of the newsletter! Glory to God for the vision that he gave me this morning! First off, I got off to a late start this morning. I was running late for work and once I got there, I locked my keys in my vehicle. After getting my keys out I ran over to a 9 A.M. meeting and sat there in silent prayer. Lord knows I was not into the meeting.
Following the meeting I rushed home to change and get ready for a series of meetings, one meeting is at 12 and another at 1 P.M. After praying and doing some reading, I realized I was running late again! I rushed to my car just to see my door to the garage close behind and my keys were locked in the house. After a friend picked me up, in a rush again I closed my garage door and locked all my papers for my meetings in the car inside the garage! My God, the devil is busy today! Nonetheless, I made it to my office and the meetings went off without a hitch, just had to re-print the stuff locked in the garage. I was doing a great deal of running and rushing and was going nowhere today without my keys.
For many this would be considered a pretty bad day. But it was not for me! I had quality time with the Lord today. In between waiting for friends to pick me up and spending time in prayer and study. Yeah! I did not get the meditation out this morning but look at what God put into my spirit this afternoon. God had to slow me down a little bit to get me in the right mindset to allow his creativeness inside me to grow.
There is a host of little things I learned from this passage and form Jonah. (Suggest you read the entire book.) First, you can't outrun God. I tried today. I was like a hamster running on the circle wheel at full speed but each time I would look back there was the cross! My God! I was like that when God first called me to preach. You see who won that race. (SHOUT!) I didn't want to do it because I couldn't see how god could use someone like me for something as awesome as this. But no matter where I turned, God was there, reinforcing that Call.
The next little thing we can learn is God is in charge. Like Jonah we have trouble with that sometimes. But there it is, God is in charge. God has always been and always will be in charge. And the finally little things, like keys do not matter! Jonah gave a little sermon but God used it in a powerful way. The sailors had a little humility, enough to allow them to pray to God even though He wasn't their God. That little bit of humility and faith was enough to save them. And God used a little thing like a worm to teach Jonah about how much God loves the world and how much God wants to save the entire world.
A little thing such as this is now yours to share! Have a blessed week in the name of the Son, The father and the Holy Spirit! AMEN!
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