Obey God, or Else

With the story of Jonah, he was told directly from God what to do but Jonah refused. He knew better, but chose otherwise. There is a warning in this story and the story was not recorded to be just a simple story.

 

We should have but only one fear and that is the fear of God. Not because we are scared of Him but because He holds our very breath and we should reverence Him as being our master. Once we are born we work for an employer that is nothing but evil. We do the evil things that he commands and think nothing of it. However, once we are saved our employment changes. Our uniform changes and our boss changes and we begin to do the work of our new employment.

 

If you do not do what God tells you, like any good father does He will chastise you. If have no chastisement then you’re not one of His, saved. Being born again means that you will not want to do those evil things. They are contrary to Gods will and you will experience great hardship if you chose to live against Gods will. God loves His children and He has called us into His holiness. We often live as if we know what’s going on and yet we are here today and gone tomorrow. We have no control over the next second let alone our own life. Yet we live as if we control it all. 

 

Stop being hard headed and let God have full control of your life. No matter where you are He is there and in full control. Just as the Psalmist stated that even if you are in Hell God will be there too. 

 

Jonah ran from God, yet God ran him down. God sent out a great wind and caused the sea to be very rough. Not only was Jonah in the cross hairs but there was also other people effected by this rough sea. In our own lives if we chose to disobey God it also affects those around us. It hurts the body of Christ when others disobey God. Looking back in your own life how many times has God sent the hard stuff that created the suffered great and brought you low in order for you to repent? The lowness brought on by the chastening by God should bring repentance. You say you do not want the chastening of God, too bad. We are all human and can’t be perfect like God and when we can’t live holy as Him. If the chastening of God is not in your life that you better be seeking after Him cause likely you’ve not been saved. You have to be sick to be healed.  You have to be broken to be made whole. You have to be lost to be saved. 

 

Jonah thought he would just sleep thru the storm. Just as in your life, once you’ve been saved God will begin to make changes in your life. You might think you’ll just sweep that sin under the rug but God knows it’s there and He will do whatever it takes for you to clean it up. 

 

Jonah got to the point once the others found out that God was upset, Jonah thought he would just give up and die. Jonah didn’t know that God had prepared a huge fish to swallow him. Jonah thought he’d rather die that do what God told him to do. He thought he controlled his life and yet ended up in the belly of that great fish. He went directly from the frying pan into the fire.

 

He just thought that the ship in a great storm was bad and then proclaimed while in the belly of the fish that he was in hell. The fish went to the bottom of the sea with Jonah in it’s belly. For three days Jonah lived in this fish with no sleep. 

 

If you run from God, He will get you. If your want to live on you’re terms and be saved, it won’t work that way. The second you were saved you died out to the old man and became a new. You no longer are your own and belong to Him. He will break every ship and take you to the bottom if He has to to break you.

 

It’s a lot easier to just confess your sin and God to forgive you. If your children look you in the eye and tell you they are sorry, how quickly are you to forgive them? Everyday we should die out to those things we refuse to do. Fill in the blank, you don’t go to church, you don’t read your bible, you don’t pray, you don’t ______. Yet we want to act like it’s okay and then beg God to do something for us. 

 

All the while with Jonah God was just waiting for him to repent, break and do as He asked. The church is a hospital for the sin sick and broken hearted.