Modern- Day Jonahs 🐳🌊

Sometimes, even as Christians we can be living our lives like Jonah… We all know the story of Jonah. He ran away from God & his purpose/ calling (or so he thought), & tried to hide so God wouldn’t find him. But little did Jonah know, God not only knew where he was the entire time, but He was with Jonah & had control over everything! Thanks to God’s mercy, Jonah was sent right back to where he was supposed to go, & he did what God instructed him, which was to deliver a word from God to the people of Nineveh who were lost. They got saved! 💖🙌

Of course, nowadays, we surely all know better. As Christians, we’ve all heard this story by now, and if not, we’ve been told various times the fact that God is everywhere and we cannot hide from Him. So we don’t even try to hide physically, but, this doesn’t stop us from trying to hide our hearts from the Lord, from turning away from Him spiritually & running away from our purpose. There are many “Modern- day Jonahs” running around the world today lol. Sometimes, it can be us & we may not even realize we are doing this. Our society is so conditioned to live such a shallow, non- self- reflective life (not sure if that’s a word but you get the idea lol), that asking God to examine us and/ or having our hearts examined by God, simply does NOT come easy. We are full of pride. And I get it. I’ve been guilty of this too. Until God shook me awake (numerous times), and pointed me in the right direction. Like Jonah, God simply wasn’t going to let me go the way I wanted to. And I am grateful to Him for it! As my way would’ve led to destruction! 🙈🙏

²³ Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. ²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

-Psalm 139: 23-24

Living for the Lord is really not always easy. It’s difficult many times. We will have to endure rejection, do things that are challenging, that go against our fleshly desires, or that simply don’t make sense lol. But we need to keep our heart humble and obedient to God’s calling in our lives, even if we don’t fully understand it at the moment. Having the Lord examine us and work with us, change our hearts, is really not easy work. But the truth is that if we want to reach our purpose, we have to do this work and we have to keep relying on God and not on ourselves. We need to be humble before Him and not be prideful.

Pride can come in many forms. And I truly believe that if you are too worried about what others may think, and you put the opinion of others before the opinion of God, then that is pride and it is something you need to ask God to remove from your life because it will stop you from doing what God has called you to do. Nowadays, people live on the opinion of others. Social media has created a world of people who simply live for the approval of others. But we cannot be like the world. We need to have the courage to really live our faith.

We also have a tendency to do what is easy. I have been really guilty of this at times in the past 😳. To me this is pride in the sense that we’re not willing to do what God has called us to do if it seems like too much work. We think we have a better idea, just like Jonah thought when he went the exact opposite way of where God told him to go! Jonah questioned God on the task that was given to him. He didn’t understand God’s reason for wanting to save a city full of sinners. So he decided to go on his own way. This is also pride!

I love convenience and I love things that are simple. I am just so used to having everything delivered to me, the more simple the better LOL. But even though we have grown up with all this technology, God has also taught me that the things of the Lord aren’t always convenient and they aren’t always easy. But they are the right choice. If I always go with my desire for convenience, I will be choosing the wrong path a lot of the time. So I have to be wise and not over- indulge in my desire for instant things and then miss out on what is really important. Just like in a romantic relationship or any relationship, when people get lazy the relationships suffers; Well with God its the same way. If we get lazy & become used to this culture of convenience all of the time, our relationship with God will suffer. We need to put in time and effort continually. 💖🙏

The Narrow and Wide Gates 

¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. 

-Matthew 7: 13-14 NIV

Thinking about life and about faith in rational terms is just not a good way to go about it. Faith is the opposite of rationale, & many times it won’t make sense. I tend to do this for a lot of things in my life, like everyday decisions, I tend to go for things that make most sense. But when it comes to my faith, I have learned, I just have to be sort of irrational LOL. I can’t care what people think. I can’t care if it’s the harder, more inconvenient choice. I can’t care if it doesn’t make sense to my friends from facebook, or to family members, coworkers, or friends who don’t agree. I am kind, loving, and respectful to them of course. But I can still have my views, and I need to not only defend my faith, but live it out and live my life according to it. If I don’t do this, then I wouldn’t be sincere to myself & worst of all, I wouldn’t be acting in complete honesty with God either. It’s like keeping an essential part of my heart turned away from God, just to please others. God wants our WHOLE HEART.

³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. -Matthew 22: 37-38 NIV

We don’t have to compromise our views just because it doesn’t please other people. You don’t need to offend people, just be obedient and let yourself be led by the Holy Spirit. It may not make sense, pride may try to tell us to do something different, but as long as we’re being led by the Holy Spirit, we can be confident we’re making the correct desicions. 💖🙌🙏💯

I hope you are having a blessed week! Xoxo💖🙏