July 31, 20213

Jonah 1: 15, 17 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard . . . But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah . . . (NIV)

The trouble with running away is that you must always take yourself with you.*

A few years after graduating from Bible college, I met up with a young man from my class who was just beginning his first preaching ministry. He didn’t go into detail, but I gathered that since graduation he had been running from God. He said something along the lines of: you’ll never be happy until you’re doing what God wants you to. He seemed relieved that he finally had God off his back!

Of course, this is not true of everyone – because not everyone cares about God’s will for their lives. Did Jonah care? I think he did – that’s why he ran. Could God have found someone else to preach to Nineveh? Surely. But he wanted Jonah to do it so he pursued Jonah until Jonah made the right choice. We don’t know how many chances he might have given Jonah – or what he might have arranged if the fish thing didn’t work out – but I don’t believe Jonah was running from God so much as he was running from what God wanted him to do.

Aren’t we like that? We tell God that we will do what he wants us to do and go where he wants us to go – and then we give him a list of acceptable assignments. Like Jonah, we don’t trust God. We don’t trust him to have our best interests at heart. We don’t trust him to equip us for the job. We don’t trust him to keep his promise that he will never forsake us.

Are you running from God’s will for your life? Are you stubbornly refusing to acknowledge a change you need to make or a purpose he wants you to fulfill? Your wake-up call probably won’t come in the form of a big fish but it would be wise to stop running now before you have to find out!

Don’t go to God with options and expect him to choose one of your preferences.*