Jonah 1:9-12,  He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”  This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?”  (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.). The sea was getting rougher and rougher.  So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”  “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm, I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”

Jonah, Jonah, Jonah… this is a very familiar story for most Christians.  It is a story that grabs the attention of children and there are so many lessons we can learn and teach from it.  I remember years ago teaching Junior church and doing a lesson with the kids about the fact that our sin affects other people not just us, and there are always consequences for sin.  There are lessons on forgiveness, bad attitudes, running from the will of God, and more, but today for us the question is have you ever felt like Jonah did?

Do you or have you ever had someone in your life, or maybe they aren’t directly in your life but what they are doing affects you in some way, shape, or form that has just gone so far in your eyes that you just hope they rot in Hell?  It could even be someone in the government.  Who is it that has just pushed you too far and in your mind, they deserve to rot?  I think unfortunately we may have all been there a time or two, but what makes us feel that we deserve God’s grace more than they do?  Maybe we aren’t guilty of the same things they are, but ALL sin is disgusting to God.  God is holy and He can’t look on any sin and say, “Aww, it isn’t that bad”.  No!  All sin is the opposite of who He is and it is only the Blood of Jesus that makes anyone acceptable.  

Soooo…. What are we supposed to do with that?  We need to pray for His heart for other people.  Believe me, I have had some pretty heinous things said and done to and about me and I just wanted God to bring justice and for Him to do it the way I felt the situation deserved and then…God burdened my heart with the reality of where that person is headed… Now, stop for just a moment here and think about videos you have seen of lava flowing out of a volcano, imagine what it would be like to be stuck in that but not be able to die. That in and of itself is a terrible thing without even thinking of the rest of the details of Hell that we are given in the Bible.  We need to pray for God’s heart and we need to be willing to pray for the lost ~ just think of the difference God could make in their lives if they would give their hearts to Him.  And know too that God does have a limit of what He will put up with and He is a God of justice who will defend His people as well as prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies.  He hasn’t missed a thing that has been done and that’s just it, trust Him with it!  Trust Him to bring justice and to do what He sees fit and don’t allow all of that bitterness and anger to well up inside you and destroy you and your testimony.  Trust God to vindicate you, and to heal your heart.  Trust Him to give you beauty for ashes and to restore all that has been stolen from you.  Give Him your pain, ask Him to help you forgive them and to move forward.  Learn from Jonah.  It still amazes me that his response was to be thrown overboard.  He didn’t choose repentance.  He didn’t say, “God forgive me!  Take me back to shore guys, I need to go to Ninevah!”  In chapter 2 verse 7 we see, “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.”  He was dying!  Reality set in and he decided to be obedient and pray.  So he went to Nineveh and they all repented, there was a great revival and Jonah was depressed and angry again.  Sad as it is we can shake our heads, but we need to pray that God will give us His heart and attitude and not Jonah’s.  In the world we live in it can be easy to think, “Well I deserve…” but the reality is that we all deserve God’s wrath, none of us is perfect and it is only the blood of Jesus that saves us from it!  Pray for them.  You don’t have to associate with them more than necessary, but pray that God will work in their heart and lives and for Him to do whatever He sees fit in their life.  Release yourself from it and move forward so you can be used by God.