Our Desire in God’s Delight

“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.”
‭‭Jonah‬ ‭1:3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jonah reminds me too much of myself: fearful, selfish, disobedient and proud at times. Even when Jonah wasn’t physically running away from God, he was still resisting on the inside. He was quite capable of putting on a show of obedience to cover a seething internal mutiny or protest. Which I found myself doing the same at times, outward obedience but resisting inside.

Jonah knew (as he admitted in Jonah4:2) that God is a “gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love…who relents from sending calamity“. He hoped the Ninevites wouldn’t listen and was offended and resentful when they did. Jonah suffered under the painful mistake of assuming that he was the center of the universe. Sometimes, we will say YES to God but No to God’s rebuke, we are not the center of the universe nor even the center of our lives, it’s not us–it’s Jesus.

Some people do not even think about God until they become angry. Discouragement, disappointment and disgust seem to clear away the haziness around God and we’re all too eager to blame Him for our troubles. Are we?

God will be just as blunt with us. He will shutter our comfort if that will place us in the best place to meet Him.

When Jonah submitted to God, God provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God and in vesrse 2:9 he said “But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to You. . . I will say, Salvation comes from the LORD.” Obviously Jonah was not in a position to bargain with God. Instead, he thanked God for saving his life. Our troubles should causes us to cling tightly to God, not attempt to bargain or negotiate our way out of the pain. We can thank and praise God for what He has already done for us, and for His love and mercy.

There’s a lot of things I learned from the story of Jonah and a lot of God’s nature and character revealed to me through this story. When the year start praying and fasting of CCF started, I decided to pray and ask God for a lot of things which in favor of my comfort through this story God teach me to bend my will in submission to His will. He even warned me the possible outcome of my disobedience. He changed my heart in obedience to Him and to His will. He revealed to me all my disobedience, unfaithfulness, idols, attitude, character, all that is to be corrected. But God is faithful He also revealed to me His nature and character that will change my heart and perspective that I may fully submit to Him. God revealed Himself to me that He is: a loving, forgiving, gracious, caring, faithful, just, merciful, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, powerful, immovable GOD…He provides, He saves, He can give multiple chances. He changed my heart and thoughts, He assured me by ALL His promises. He direct me to His greatness.

Submission. As singles, especially ladies, this is something we must learn on process—the first submission we must learn is submission to God, then to our parents, Older siblings & Relatives, DGroup Leader, Spiritual Leader, Bosses, authorities. . . .then to what are we all praying for. It is easier to submit to anyone in authority when we fully submit ourselves to God, any submission requires faith, submission is equal to trusting God, trusting Him that He is in control of everything that God is sovereign.

What made it hard to submit and obey is freedom? All of us wants freedom. If that so, I want to share this part of a devotion shared to me:
“True freedom means having the ability to bend your will to His and thereby become all He created you to be. Even though you will fail at times, your greatest desire and highest pursuit as a believer is to be like Christ (1 John 2:5-6).”

True freedom can only be found in CHRIST alone. Submission to His will is freedom in bondage that holds us to grow our faith in GOD. We have many opportunities to demonstrate our submission to Christ. Let our attitudes and actions speak clearly of our love for the Master.

How about the thought “I think it’s okay to disobey God, I don’t feel any guilt in doing so…”?

The absence of guilt isn’t always a barometer of whether we are doing right. Because we can deny reality, we cannot measure obedience by our feelings. Instead, we must compare what we do with God’s standard of living. Imitate Christ.

We cannot seek God’s love and run from Him at the same time. We cannot say that we truly believe in God if you don’t do what He says.

When you know God wants you to do something, don’t run. God may not stop you as He did to Jonah. He had run away from God but was given a second chance to participate in God’s work. And so maybe God wants you to know that you have chances to be better and to please Him in all things. You can always trust Him, God is faithful.

To end this…

MUNTIK NA AKO MAKAIN NG BIG FISH! Praise the Lord for all He has done! 

Jonah had disobeyed God. While he was running away, he stopped and submitted to God.

As long as we are surrounded by our sense of control and importance, we will not know God as God. It is never too late to bend our will in submission to God’s will.

What has God done lately in your life to open your eyes a little wider?

Let our hearts be in God’s delight…