Jonah 3 & 4 - How Gracious God is.

 

Jonah 3 & 4 – How Gracious God is.

 

How gracious God is to give us another opportunity after we have failed Him (Ps.103:8-14)! God is as much concerned about the worker as He is the work. He could have sent somebody else to preach to Nineveh, but Jonah would have missed out on the lessons he needed to learn. God wants to work in us as well as through us.

 

How gracious God is to lost sinners! Why would a holy God give the vicious Ninevites an opportunity to repent?  Because “He is not willing that any should perish.” (2 Peter 3:9) but “desire all men to be saved” (I Tim. 2:4). Do you have a burden to share the gospel with a lost world that does not deserve to be saved? Remember, somebody shared it with you!

 

How gracious God is to bless the ministry of an imperfect servant! Jonah did not love the people he preached to, yet God used his message to bring the whole city to repentance. There is power in God’s word; it can convict and convert the greatest of sinners.

 

Jonah 4 – I Delight to do Your Will

 

God wanted to save Jonah from himself. Jonah was an angry man who wanted to see Nineveh destroyed. He vented his bitterness.

 

The problem was that Jonah was not completely yielded to God. His mind knew God’s truth, and his will obeyed God’s orders; but he did not do the will of God “from the heart” (Eph. 6:6). He obeyed only because he was afraid of what God might do to him. His was not a ministry of love.

 

When we are angry with God, everything in life gets out of perspective, and we say and do selfish things. But God is long-suffering and tenderly deals with us to bring us to Himself. It is essential in Christian service to be happy with the will of God. We should be able to say, “I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart.” (Ps. 40:8).

 

Please read the chapter listed so that you can understand God’s Word better.

If you have missed any lessons, you can go to: God Plans for You at https://sherrysouthard.blogspot.com. Nelson’s Quick Reference Commentary.

Dr. David Jeremiah Study Bible. Through the Bible by J. Vernon McGee.