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Jonah 2:8
"Those who worship false gods turn their backs on all God’s mercies."
You can erode your faith, you can break your covenant, you can put out the light of the gospel that you once heard by neglecting to keep your heart and mind in the works of the Holy Spirit. Idol worshipers, (aka lovers of self), who fail to fully convert to the Lord only forfeit the grace that could be theirs. At any rate they restrain grace by their disobedience, and this creates a chilling effect upon their faith.
But is all lost?
Jonah ran off to Joppa. He caught a ship to Tarshish. He asked to be tossed overboard. He thought he could escape God by drowning. He sat for three days in the fish waiting to die. He thought he would be better off fighting God's will for his life. And the irony is all he had done was hurt himself, he hadn't escaped God at all. But he did accomplish one thing, he learned that to run from God is to run from your own good.
As Jonah reflects back on his time in the fish he confessed that he felt abandoned by God:
Jonah 2:4 "I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple."
Have you ever been going through some stuff, maybe a tough road or times of great trouble, and you feel God is distant? I've been down that road and sometimes I'll interpret His silence as indifference, and other times I'll blame myself for not being in prayer and thanksgiving more often. The lesson we can learn from Jonah is that even when we've been in disobedience we need God's holy presence to help us endure the situations we created. We learn that God never forsakes His children – even when we disobey Him. Even as we're lost in the dark. As we're huddled there in the dark, like being lost in a forest, and we hear the night sounds. Every snapping twig is surly a dangerous wild animal ready to pounce. An owl screeching. A fox cries out. Critters everywhere stirring in the leaf litter. The winds are howling and cold. And there's no light. We can't see a foot in front of our face. And the long night hours drag on and on. And we're so tired, longing to sleep in peace. It feels like we'll never sleep again. And then somehow we drift off into a fitful sleep and frightening dreams. Until finally the dawn begins to break. And as the sunrises we can see that there's nothing there at all that is going to harm us. All the while God was there watching over us. Waiting on us to wake up.
All Christians need to examine their spiritual passion to see if they've drifted off away from God. In Jonah's story we learn how to restore our faithfulness. The first thing we need to understand is the great fish wasn't a punishment. In fact what the fish is, is God's mercy. Think back...they threw Jonah into the sea to drown. God sent the fish to pick him up. It sustained him while he was going through his restorative period. It protected him while he was lost in the depths of his sin. God sent the fish to rescue him from dying because God loves Jonah.
Next we need to understand that the fish gets Jonah where he needs to be. The fish transports Jonah to exactly where God wanted Jonah to be. That fish isn't a punishment, it's salvation. That fish was Jonah's own private holy sanctuary. It was his place to receive God. He felt abandoned there but he remembered the Lord.
"As my life was fading away, I remembered the Lord." [Jonah 2:7].
He was exhausted. He had tried everything his way and he was done trying to be God. And now God was there ready to strip him of his pride and prejudice. And he does. And Jonah prays in thanksgiving. God removed all the spiritual distractions. And Jonah submits without reservation.
That's spiritual renewal. God gave him mercy in the fish and broke him of himself while he was there. Jonah prays the psalms, he gets his thoughts into God's word. In his prayer time God's word guided Jonah into understanding and remembering about God's thoughts about him. And when the restoration is finished God takes him to where he needs to be.
He promised, "I will fulfill my vows." [Jonah 2:9]. The lesson is repentance without obedience results in failure. True repentance requires change. God isn't obligated to have mercy. A holy God is both just and merciful, but never unjust.
The ultimate lesson:
When you say your prayers, be careful you don't pray for justice from God. You might get it and you'll likely not enjoy it. Especially since the final result of God's justice typically results in either full submission, or utter failure on the part of the one seeking justice while following idols. Vanity gives birth to weariness when we invent our own godly forms. And justice might find you inside a fishy situation. Be careful what you pray for and who you pray to.