I was reminded of this because my Grandfather-in-law passed away. You may wonder what that has to do with this subject, but hopefully you will understand soon enough.
I think we all have heard about Jonah being swallowed by a whale and then three days later the whale spit him up unto land. Lets see how this happened.
JNH 1:1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me." 3 But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.
Does this sound familiar? How many times have we done this? God asks us to do something and we don't want to do it? Lets see what happened next.
JNH 1:4 Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, "How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish."
Just like Jonah, we run from what we are suppose to do a lot of times. Then when God allows "storms" to come into the lives of people around us we ignore the fact that because of us not doing what we are suppose to the storms are there. This sounds a lot like many Christians today that are doing what they want to rather then what God wants. The storms in our lives and in the lives of people around us could many times be avoided.
Since nothing seemed to work they asked Jonah what they should do. After they tried everything else, they did what he said:
JNH 1:11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, "What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?" 12 "Pick me up and throw me into the sea," he replied, "and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you." 13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. 14 Then they cried to the LORD, "O LORD, please do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O LORD, have done as you pleased." 15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm.
As soon as Jonah took responsibility for his actions, the storm went away. I believe in the same way we can avoid a lot of storms that come into our lives and into the lives of people around us. Just like God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh I believe he has missions for a lot of us and we choose to ignore them. By doing so we bring storms into a lot of peoples lives. We are supposed to influence the world around us. A whale swallowed Jonah and three days later spit him unto the land. He got another chance to do what God asked him to do.
Do we always get another chance? Here is where my Grandfather-in-law comes in. I had known this man for going on ten years. Several times I felt that I should talk to him about Jesus, but never did. When we got the call that he was in the hospital close to death it really hit me. Was the times I felt I should talk to him about Jesus something God had wanted me to do and I didn't? Did this man laying in the hospital ready to die know Jesus? Where would he go if he died? All of a sudden talking to him became top priority. I was fortunate, I got another chance to talk to him and found out he knew Jesus. Could you imagine if he would have died without me getting a chance to speak to him?
That is just one example of what could happen if we don't do what God asks us to do. A mans future was at stake. There are many other areas that God may be telling us to be involved in or things he may want us to do. How many "storms" can be avoided by us doing what we are suppose to do?
Conclusion: Try to find out what God wants you to do. It could be the difference between life and death for some people. But remember, not everyone is called to do the same thing, so don't measure what you do by what you see others doing. We don't all have the same calling. Lets influence this world for the better.
