Unfinished Faith: Relearning God.

Week 28:

The bit where I introduce:

Sometimes God gives us messages, signs and it’s not “the thing” you want to hear or it’s not the time you want to listen.

God’s voice can feel familiar or unfamiliar to us all. Sometimes His words affirm us; other times they can confront us. The question isn’t simply; can we hear God? It’s, what will we do when He says something we don’t want to hear?

Growing up I often imagined hearing God’s voice and thinking it will always feel comforting. Yet, God’s voice and His plans can also confront, redirect, humble, and stretch us, at times in our lives when we don’t want to hear it.

Jonah had the monopoly on hearing but not obeying, not wanting to go where he was sent and ended up in the stomach of a large fish/ whale/ sea creature.  Jonah’s story reminds us that the hardest part of faith is often not figuring out God’s voice but trusting His heart.

The bit where I refer to the Bible and ask a few questions:

Jonah 1:1-10

1 The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai:

2 “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”

3 But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.

Jonah partially heard and did what he was supposed to but ended up going the wrong way and rejected the second part of God’s instructions. Jonah partially tried, but sometimes partial obedience can disguise wholehearted resistance. Who are we kidding though? of course He knows our heart and sees right through us thinking we can fool or convince Him. Is that something you’ve seen or experienced?

Another repeated word worth noticing is “down.” Jonah: went down to Joppa, went down into the ship (v. 5) and later went down into the sea. Some of my readings suggest physical “going down” mirrors Jonah’s spiritual journey away from God’s call. Life imitating his heart so to speak.

But it begs asking the question…

Am I asking God to speak, do I want Him to speak at that time or am I only willing to listen if His answer matches what I already want?

Rather than obey, Jonah fled in the opposite direction. God pursued him through a violent storm, a great fish, and eventually gave Jonah a second chance. Jonah finally delivered God’s message, and to his surprise, the entire city from the king to the common people repented. God responded with compassion and withheld His judgment.

Instead of celebrating, Jonah became angry. The book ends with God gently challenging Jonah’s heart through the object lesson of a vine, revealing that Jonah cared more about his own comfort than about thousands of people created in God’s image. Yes, I have been guilty of that.

Jonah reminds us that the greatest obstacle to following God is often not hearing His voice but accepting His message. We may want to pray for guidance yet struggle when God asks us to forgive instead of retaliating, wait instead of act, serve instead of seek comfort, or extend compassion to people we would rather avoid. We avoid doing what is needed, because it is hard.

The story invites us to ask not only, “Is God speaking?” but also, “Am I willing to listen and obey, even when I don’t like what He says?” Jonah forces us to wrestle with an uncomfortable question: Do I want God’s will, or do I simply want God to bless mine?

This shifts the focus of Jonah flailing from his thinking that he knows better than God, has better timing than God but then turns it from a story about a runaway prophet to a story about a gracious God who patiently transforms both the people He sends to and the people He sends through. Thankfully that includes you and me…right now in whatever part of the plan you are in.

The bit where you get to think about stuff: Questions for the week.

Is there a truth from God that I’ve been avoiding because it’s uncomfortable?

If God asked you to do the one thing you least wanted to do, would you still call Him good?

Could it be that the answer you’re waiting for is one God has already given?