August 6, 2022 - Jonah 1:3

“But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the LORD. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the LORD by sailing to Tarshish.” Jonah 1:3 NLT

Lord, you called Jonah to go to Nineveh and witness to them. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire, and it was an extremely wicked city. We could likely relate to his feelings on this if you called us to the same thing. As an Israelite he would not have liked these people. They were a ruthless enemy of his people. He likely felt they deserved your judgement, not your mercy. I am sure he also feared showing up there preaching. Lord, how often do we judge the things that you ask us to do? Do we justify the reasons why we are sure that it isn’t you talking? Do we come up with excuses of why we can’t answer your call? Or do we run in the opposite direction? Nineveh was 500 miles east of Israel and Jonah ran to Tarshish, thought to be in Spain, 2500 miles east. And at that time Spain was the end of the world as they knew it. He literally tried to run as far as he could from your calling. But Lord, Jeremiah 23:24 tells us that we can’t hide from you and Jonah found that out.

Lord, if we have run from your calling or excused it away, please forgive us. Look at the amazing miracle that you did through Jonah when he did obey. We want to trust you and say, “Yes,” to whatever you ask of us. We don’t want you to have to chase us down and do something drastic to get our attention. So, whether you are asking us to move to some distant land or just talk to a stranger about you in the grocery store, help us to trust you and obey. You are so worthy of our obedience. We want to do all that we can to spread the power of your name throughout the world. We commit to answering your call!

In Jesus name, amen.