YOU CANNOT RUN FROM GOD

YOU CANNOT RUN FROM GOD        Sunday June 21, 2015

Text: Jonah 1:1 – 10                          Memory verse: v 3  

We can never run away from God when He has purposed to do anything with us. When determined, He will surely make us bend to His purposes. Any act to revolt from Him ends in regrets. It is better to respond to God’s assignment and call on our own rather than run away and God uses force to get us into His will. He may crush us in the process. The story of Jonah is well known to us. Jonah knew that God had a specific job for him, but he didn’t want to do it. God had sent him to Tarshish. Tarshish is in the south of Spain, north-west of the straits of Gibraltar and could be one of the Phoenicia’s western ports. Nineveh was toward the east. Jonah decided to go as far west as he could.

When God gives us directions through His word, sometimes we run in fear or in stubbornness, claiming that God is asking too much. The area God gives instruction may be to preach to or pray for someone, give something to support His work, extend hands of charity to people, etc. Such instructions should be carried out to the letter. It may have been fear or anger at the God’s mercy that made Jonah run, but running got him into worse trouble. At last, Jonah understood that it was best to do what God asked in the first place. By then he had paid a costly price for running. It is far better to obey from the start than run.

Foods for Thought: It is vain thought to flee from the work that God appoints us, for the sake of finding a greater blessing, instead of seeking it where alone it is to be found-in loving obedience – Eliot.

Prayer: Grant me the grace O Lord to obey your instructions