The inconvenience of it all.  There are times when writing comes easily. The devotionals flow with ease and I know exactly where the Lord is leading.  The path forward is crystal clear. And then there are times like tonight.  I’ve started and stopped numerous times.  Everything I wrote felt forced and I knew that wasn’t it. So here I am just waiting and watching…

God asked Jonah pointed questions so he would bring everything he felt, experienced, thought, and internalized about “them”—the Ninevites—into the open before Him. God wasn’t causing Jonah to revisit a painful place without also providing the opportunity for healing. Healing was waiting for Jonah, but he would have had to do the hard work of acknowledging his need and accepting…

When I completed the devotional about listening, witnessing, and rejoicing, my heart went to a situation of my own and how I was struggling with what God was saying to me through Jonah.  Yes, I want to make heaven my home.  Yes, I want to hear God say, “Well done…” and yet, it is quite difficult to wholeheartedly lean into…

Jonah was a walking miracle!  He’d been the welcome recipient of God’s hand despite his blatantly disobedient life.  He’d survived being thrown overboard and swallowed by a fish God created just for him. Followed by praying so intently that God caused that same fish to spit him out on dry ground and make it to a city in one day,…

In Jonah’s darkest hours, God was right there waiting for him to reach out for help.  God never had a chip on His shoulder, with the attitude that, since Jonah turned on Him, God would let him squirm a little before coming to his aid.  The opposite was true.  God was at the ready.  God was all ears – it…

I was pondering over where the Lord wanted me to go with the next devotional. Surely, the book of Jonah is in the rearview mirror. But the Lord nudged my heart to go back to Jonah.  At church, we’ve been studying the story of the widow and the pot of oil for several months (2 Kings 4:1-7). So, when the…

No one knew about Jonah’s internal issue except him and God. Did the mariners ever find out what happened to a man they were forced to throw overboard? We don’t know. One thing they understood was that it was absolutely necessary to do so to save themselves. The proof was in that the storm ceased instantly. Perhaps they thought he…

Jonah fulfilled the requirement to preach the message God gave him to the Ninevites, but his heart wasn’t there. Yes, he showed up and preached. However, the scripture never states that the Ninevites knew Jonah’s true feelings about them. They received what he shared with hearts willing to call on God. They fasted and prayed for God to change His…

You are still chosen.  Running doesn’t change the assignment before you.  I ran for several years before I came to the obvious conclusion that God wasn’t going to revise His plan to accommodate my personal preferences. My issues, like Jonah’s, Moses’, Jacob’s, Esther’s, Peter’s, to name a few, were deep-seated. Despite the issues, God steadily walked with all of us…

At a glance, it appeared as if Jonah was being unreasonable. But given the intense brutality the Ninevites enacted against Israel—Jonah’s kinfolk—his disdain was understandable. It made perfect sense that Jonah wanted nothing to do with warning his enemies of impending destruction. Added to that was Jonah’s awareness that God might be merciful to them. His feelings didn’t emerge in…

Jonah was adamant — he was not stepping on Nineveh’s soil! Yes, God had spoken to him to deliver a scathing message to the Ninevites about their wickedness. But Jonah’s refusal was more than mere words. He purchased a one-way ticket to Tarshish, which was toward the west. Nineveh was to the east. His actions said Nineveh would not see…