Have you ever felt God calling you to do something, but you definitely did NOT want to do it? Let me introduce you to Jonah. He would probably be saying, “Same, girl, same.” Jonah is the Biblical icon of disobedience to the Lord. 

The young women at my church and I are currently going through Priscilla Shirer’s study of the book of Jonah. If you are unfamiliar with the story, you can read its four chapters fairly quickly (Jonah 1-4). 

We first learn God spoke to Jonah, a prophet, and instructed him to go to Nineveh and preach to the people about their wickedness. In typical human fashion, Jonah “ran away” from God and attempted to travel approximately 2500 miles in the opposite direction. Jonah 1:3 tells us Jonah was deliberately “fleeing from the Lord.” Well, God was not too happy about Jonah’s decision making, so a storm began to brew. It became so treacherous, the captain and his crew began to cry out to each of their own gods, but Jonah did not, he was asleep below deck. Eventually, Jonah told the crew to throw him overboard because this was all his fault for disobeying God. So they did, but not before first attempting to row back to shore, praying for forgiveness for throwing Jonah into the sea, and then making a sacrifice to the Lord. 

Once Jonah was in the sea, the Lord sent a big fish who swallowed Jonah up for 3 days and 3 nights. Now, personally, I hate the smell of fish, so if I had been Jonah, I would have been getting my act together and fast. But if Jonah was in the belly of this fish for 3 days and 3 nights, I don’t believe he automatically prayed to God. I think he sulked and carried on, before finally realizing that his way may not be right. He made his heartfelt prayer to God in chapter 2, leading to God commanding the fish to spew Jonah out. 

God is a gracious God. And because he is gracious, he spoke to Jonah a second time, commanding him to go to Nineveh and speak the word the Lord gave him. This time, Jonah obeyed. Nineveh was a large city, and it took Jonah three days to travel through it. Jonah proclaimed, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The Ninevites believed God. Jonah’s warning even reached the king, who then made a decree for the people and animals of Nineveh to fast, call upon God urgently, and give up their wicked ways, saying, “Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” Guess what? God is a gracious God; when he saw that the Ninevites turned from their evil ways, he did not bring destruction to them.

Chapter 4 tells us of Jonah’s anger towards the Lord’s compassion on Nineveh, and while this is an important lesson for us also, I encourage you to read and reflect on this outside of this article. 

So, this is a crazy story! If you did not believe in the word of God and the validity of Scripture, you may think this is some fantastical tall tale. I get it. It is a wild story, but there are real lessons from it. 

First, we need to understand Jonah’s world at the time of this story. He had allegiance to his country of Israel, and because Israel was dubbed as God’s chosen nation, Jonah viewed them as the only one worthy of the Lord’s mercy. Nineveh was a vile nation who had most likely caused death and destruction to Jonah’s family and countrymen when he was a boy. Yet, God wanted to redeem this place, rather than rain destruction on it. Why? God loves his creation. Jonah did not understand this, but God wanted his mercy and love to be available to all nations. Jonah, however, thought his way was better than the Lord’s, and we know that was just not true (Isaiah 55:8). Thankfully, Jonah “saw the light” and played a major role in arguably the world’s greatest revival. 

Can you see yourself in Jonah’s story? He did not like what God had to say, so he ran. He ran away from the nearness of God and tried to keep the nagging conviction at bay. God wanted him to help his enemies; not an easy feat for anyone. 

So who or what is your Nineveh? What is God calling you toward? Are you running like Jonah, or stepping out in faith? 

Maybe God has been tugging at your heart to begin a ministry, but it seems too challenging or too much work. How do you know that? God does not always call the equipped, but He equips the called. Just look at numerous people in the Bible, and you will see.

Is God calling you to start going to church or the Bible study your friend invited you to? There’s no need to be afraid. It will be worth it. 

Are you being called to short-term or long-term missions? What is stopping you?

Maybe God is nudging you to befriend and show kindness to the coworker who does not seem to get along with anyone. What if they have a story similar to yours and God wants to use you? 

Jonah’s story also reminds us that no one is too far gone to be saved. In our world, we hear all too often “there’s no hope” for someone. That is a lie, and this story is the proof. God could have destroyed an entire city because of their evil! Yet, he didn’t. We need to remember everyone has a story, and there is always hope in Jesus. You or I could have been in a different set of shoes if circumstances were different. 

As Christians, it is our innate calling to lead others to Christ. And step one of doing so is to follow the voice of the Lord. If you feel Him leading you to do something or try something new, know God has a reason behind it. If you have the opportunity to build relationships with people who are different than you, do so! You will get to show so many people outside of the church the love and joy of Christ. Don’t let it get to the point of being thrown overboard and spending 3 days and nights in the belly of a fish for you to figure things out. Learn from Jonah. Follow God’s lead. He knows what He is doing.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Whitney can be described by the opening lyrics of a few Tom Petty songs. She's a good girl who grew up in a small Indiana town who loves her mama, Jesus, and America too. She practices medicine as a physician assistant at an urgent care. Whitney is a music enthusiast and leads worship at her church. She has a heart for people, and wants to help young girls and women find their worth in Christ rather than what the world says of them. Whitney loves a good dad joke, the outdoors, spending time with family and friends, Southern manners, working on her fitness, attempting Pinterest crafts, and cheering on Indiana University basketball.