Are You Running To or From the Lord

 June 30, 2024

Sunday

Those who know the Lord may not want to serve the Lord. That is a hard thing to fathom. Knowing the Lord should mean that we obey Him because we know Him to be good all the time if we really know Him. We know Him to be wise and loving if we really know Him. We know Him to know exactly all that will happen if we truly know Him. Do we think that He wants to hurt us when He tells us to do something? Or is the problem that we know Him and that which He asks us to do is distasteful to us?

This was the case of Jonah. God commanded Jonah to go to Ninevah and cry out against it because of their great wickedness. Jonah does not go because he knows what will happen. He knows that God is a patient God. He knows that He will not destroy a people who will repent. He didn't want to preach to a people that they are assured destruction when God would not destroy them. He decided that he needed to put himself in a place where God could not use him. He headed to Tarshish. 

I have met many people who were called to preach the gospel but who didn't. They came forward in worship services to tell of their callings. They told others that they were called but they never went. In one case I am thinking of now, the money was just too great in what he was doing. He didn't want his family to suffer the lifestyle of a preacher's family. Thus, he knew he was called but never went. He didn't go to Tarshish. He decided that he would just postpone responding to the call until time eliminated him. 

The problem was that his family suffered the fate of a worldly atmosphere rather than one that was godly. His family never knew the service nor did they know the joy. They learned by his example that money was always more important than serving God. In the end, the fate of his family was much worse than they would have had if they were as destitute as a preacher. They did not know the works of the Lord. This man's grandchildren would not know the Lord. So, the man may have gained the whole world but he forfeited the greatest value to his soul.

How many Jonahs are out there? They know that the Lord called them to act and they ran until they were unable to fulfill what the Lord called them to do. God may make things difficult for them but they were persistent in running. Note that when Jonah was on the ship in the middle of the storm, he told the pagan mariners to throw him into the sea. He didn't make a commitment to do as the Lord said. He was willing to die without fulfilling God's command. But God sustained Jonah in a great fish. He transported him to the seashore once Jonah committed himself to doing the Lord's will. God gave Jonah a second chance.

Are there people who are reading this who know that God is giving them a second chance? God may not be calling them to preach. He may be telling them to start a neighborhood Bible study. He may tell them to forgive a family member. He may be telling them to reconcile with their estranged spouses. He may be telling them to start a ministry that will reflect His love. Being afraid of what the Lord tells us to do will drive us away from the Lord if the fear of the Lord is not greater than what we are afraid of.

Which way are you heading? Is it toward what the Lord has told you to do or away from it?

Jonah 1:1–3 (NASB 2020) ¹ The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ² “Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry out against it, because their wickedness has come up before Me.” ³ But Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship that was going to Tarshish, paid the fare, and boarded it to go with them to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord.