Bible Besties | Jonah

Today’s Bible Besties devotion is about Jonah.

You are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.

Jonah 4:2

Devotion for Today

Jonah was a prophet in the Old Testament. His job was telling people what God was saying. His whole goal was to be God’s mouthpiece.

But when God asked Jonah to go to Nineveh… well, that wasn’t Jonah’s idea of sharing God’s message. Jonah didn’t want to talk to those people. Those people were sinners and didn’t deserve God’s grace.

So Jonah decided to do just the opposite of what God was telling him to do.

I mean, maybe Jonah heard wrong. Surly he wasn’t called to Nineveh. Maybe on the way to Tarshish, God would give him a message for those people. Those people would heed his warning.

Have you ever been there? Have you ever felt God tugging at your heart to do something, and then deliberately did something else? Have you ever thought that surely you heard the wrong thing, and decided to do what seemed right in your own eyes?

Proverbs 21:2 says, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.” There’s so much truth to that. If we slow down and look at our motives, we can examine our own hearts. But too often we don’t. We just keep doing the next right thing in our eyes and leave God out of it.

But God caught up to Jonah, and He can do the same for us. Even when we aren’t looking at our motives, God can convict our spirits.

When we’re hanging out with Jonah, we’re hanging out with the wrong crowd. Instead of taking comfort from the story of Jonah, we need to take a step back and see if we’re following Him instead of Jesus.

Let’s stick with Jonah a little bit longer. God convicted him of his disobedience, so he finally went to Nineveh and preached the message God had for them, and then he sat back and waited for God to destroy them. He hadn’t shared God’s Word with a grateful heart. He wasn’t showing God’s love to the people of Nineveh. His heart had hardened and he was doing the bare minimum.

That’s where I find myself most often. I do what God has asked me to do, but I don’t do it with a joyful heart. I do it just to get it done.

But God’s will for the people of Nineveh came about, regardless of Jonah’s heart attitude. I think that’s the reminder I need today. My bitterness doesn’t change God’s will. That, and God can use me, even when my heart isn’t right. That when I’m cranky or just worn out by life, God can still use me.

Do you need that reminder today? A reminder that no matter where you are, or what you’re going through, God can still use you in the lives of others. Maybe the mom in line in front of you at the grocery store needs to see your smile. Maybe the driver the car you let merge in front of you was having a bad day and that made it a little easier.

The truth is, God doesn’t call most of us to Nineveh. Instead, He calls us to share His love right where we’re at. He calls us to give grace to those around us. He calls us to show others His love. Even when they don’t deserve it.

Jonah judged the city of Nineveh as unworthy, and I wonder how many of us do the same with those around us. We’re hanging out with Jonah and looking down on those around us, feeling like we’re better than them.

In my Bible at the end of the book of Jonah I have a short prayer written. It says, “Lord, don’t let me be a Jonah.” And that’s my prayer for you today as well. That you would take a step away from Jonah and wouldn’t write off the people around you, but that you would love them the way God is calling you to.

* This story in all of it’s entirety can be found in the book of Jonah.

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