JONAH

Chapter 1

Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me. Jonah 1:2 – We may not like to relate with Jonah here, but I believe far too often we do with how he reacted. God made it clear that He saw the people of Nineveh, but not only saw them, but wanted to give them an opportunity to repent. Have we ever gotten upset that God was open to giving someone a second, or more than second, chance? See God’s love and salvation is available to the rapist in jail or the person who hurt your family tremendously. His arms are open to all who choose to turn from their sin and come to Him. We must not fight against God’s decision to offer salvation to the entire world. We must follow His choice and share His love with all that He leads us to, even if sharing means discussing His love with someone you at one time thought shouldn’t be offered it. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 658

He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” Jonah 1:12 – While this may look like an admirable act on Jonah’s part, to sacrifice himself for the crew, it truly was the most selfish choice Jonah could have made in that moment. One, he had multiple times to cry out to God yet chose to continue in his “running away” from God. Two, this act of being thrown overboard he thought would end him exactly where he wanted, far from Nineveh. Three, he carelessly was putting his blood on these innocent sailor’s hands. When choosing to pursue sin, selfishness often becomes the motive behind your future actions. We begin finding ourself careless of how our choices effect others and only thinking about how we can remain in the sin we’re enjoying currently. What is seen in this first chapter is the results on the lost world when a follower of God chooses sin. We leave them confused, unsure of where to look for help, and hopeless. Let go of the selfish pursuit of sin so the lost can have someone pointing them to Jesus. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2089

Chapter 2

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish. (v.1) Your S.O.S. will always be heard. It’s scary how easy it can be for us to be distracted by the enemy into thinking that God can’t hear or won’t listen to our cries for help. That we can actually find ourselves in so deep that the water over our heads is actually blotting out our cries for help and salvation. Here in Jonah though we see exactly the opposite. Depth doesn’t matter. Distance away isn’t enough. The water over our heads may be able to swallow us up, but it’s not able to keep God from hearing our cries for rescue. My message for you today is not to be deceived into thinking your S.O.S. of recuse from your current struggle in life can ever be blotted out by your past or dismissed by God because of your current standing. If you are truly crying out to God for rescue and healing, seeking His love and forgiveness, God will always be available to you in those times. No amount of depth you’ve gotten yourself into will separate you from the love the Father has for you. God though will allow us to step away and be swallowed up and taken to a place we never wanted to go if that’s the direction we desire. Even so, when we come to our senses, and see we need rescue, know God hears and God helps. – Daily DEVO 56

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish… Jonah 2:1 – You may think sometimes that you’ve gotten yourself in a place that’s too dark and too far down for God to hear you and listen. What we must remember is that none of us have been as far as Jonah got. Not only going in the opposite direction of what God said to do, but literally swallowed up by a fish and deep in the waters. You can’t get much worse than that. Yet even there we see God heard Jonah and answered Him. You need to know that no matter how far you get away from where God wants you that you can always call out to Him and know He will hear you. For Jonah, God was with him in the belly of the fish and for you God will always be with you wherever you find yourself. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 659

Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord! Jonah 2:8-9 – Note this prayer to the Lord wasn’t happening on some pretty hillside with a sunset in the background, this was happening inside the belly of the fish. Here Jonah finally responds to God. He looks back at the last few days of his life and the choices he has made. While the idol he was following wasn’t a golden statue, it was the idol of self and his selfish desires. Just like following any idol, Jonah choose to reach out for something different than the constant love of God and felt the repercussions of such as choice. Yet we see our God is a God of second chances and accepts the turning back of Jonah. Yes, Jonah ran away, forsaking the Lord, but the Lord never left him and kept His path open for Jonah to follow if Jonah would only turn back. Maybe you’ve been the one who paid regard or gave yourself wholly over even to something other than God. Know the path is still open for you to turn around and follow Jesus. If someone stuck in the middle of a fish has the option of repentance, you can as well. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2090

Chapter 3

Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” (v.4) Five words and a city turned to God. If you look at the Hebrew, Jonah only spoke five words to the people of Nineveh, and not a single one of those words told them to repent, to turn to God, or even spoke about God in it. Yet what was God able to do with the five words of a reluctant prophet? He was able to turn the eyes of an entire city to Himself; from the poorest of the poor to the king on the throne, all eyes turned to God and God was able to relent from His destruction. So my question to you is this, if God was able to save an entire city with the few words of a reluctant prophet, what do you think He could do with an unashamed, devoted disciple? How about what could God accomplish with an entire church unified together in His love for each other and for those outside the church? The stories would be legendary and it all starts with us saying we’ll follow Him wherever He leads. That we’ll say whatever He directs us to say. We’ll partner up with whoever He leads us to be with. We will allow the desires of God to become our desires. When this happens be ready to live the adventure. For if God can save a city with the five words of a reluctant prophet, what do you think He can do with you when you’re all in for Him? – Daily DEVO 57

Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. Jonah 3:4-5 – We know God can multiply bread and fish, but what we see here is a multiplication of something else. He multiplied the impact. Jonah reluctantly gave the message to the people not even including anything about God or His love. That message though was enough for God to work with and multiple the impact of to the point we see the whole nation, including the king, turning from their evil ways to follow God. You may not think your witness is having much impact, just know God is able to take your faithful witness and multiply the impact hundreds of times you ever imagined. We just need to make sure we are doing our mission God called us to. It’s impossible for God to multiply the impact of your faithful witness if you aren’t having one. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 660

The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Jonah 3:6 – This is exactly what God is looking for. When the king heard the message of the Lord, the king didn’t remain existing as he was before he heard the message. The king got up from his throne, changed his clothes, and humbled himself before God. The king didn’t stay where he was but made a change. When God speaks to us, God wants a change made from us. God wants us to listen when He speaks and be willing to follow His words with our actions…or we can choose to remain sitting on our throne saying we’re in change instead. What we see in this passage is what can happen when people humble themselves to the word of God. Get up out of your throne, change according to the ways God is directing you, and find the freedom and life that follows such humility. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2091

Chapter 4

And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?” (v.4) What God asked Jonah during Jonah’s tantrum is a question we should direct right back at us. Do you do well to be _____? Angry, worry-filled, stressed, depressed, selfish; all these and more we could fill in that blank with. God’s question to Jonah is asking is it truly benefiting you or benefiting My plan when you’re angry like this? The correct answer that Jonah could not muster up was no, it’s not. We need to at least in our minds, if not in our actions, muster up the right answer as well with whatever we are filling in the blank with. Is whatever it is truly benefiting you and benefiting God’s plan? Is that worry actually helping you? Is that anger actually creating anything good for you? Is that self-destructive mindset actually leading you closer to the path God has for you? We need to begin checking out emotional state before we allow those emotions to lead our next step. Not saying you can’t have emotions, that would be absurd and un-human for us to live life like that. Let’s though take a moment and ask ourselves, is the mindset I’m in actually doing me well and doing God’s plan well or is that actually damaging me and my walk with God? Beginning to allow that question to be a filter in our lives will save us from taking steps that are led by the emotions that should never be the directors in our lives. This allows our focus on Christ to be the one that determines our steps and actions rather than the conditionally guided emotions in our life being our directors. – Daily DEVO 58

And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” Jonah 4:10-11 – What’s more valuable, your comfort or their salvation? That’s what Jonah is being asked here by the Lord and is also the question being asked of us. We know their are people in our families, workplace, and school that don’t know Jesus. Yet often the reason we don’t share His love with them is that it somehow would interfere with our comfort. We’re comfortable being the quiet one at work or we don’t like the big debates sometimes bringing up Jesus at a family get-together can create. We just have to remember that often there will have to be a dropping of the comfortable in order to share Jesus’ love with someone. Make sure you see their salvation as more valuable than your comfort. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 661

And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?” Jonah 4:4 – The Bible does actually speak some on anger and when it’s okay to have within our story. God is asking Jonah to ask of himself if this anger he has towards God’s decision to save Nineveh is good to have. The answer, absolutely not. When your anger is leading you to denounce God’s character, desire the end of other’s lives, question God’s motives, and diminish the value of a life, then your anger is no longer good. Is then the anger you have good for you? Is it helping your intimacy with Jesus? Is it drawing you closer to your brothers and sisters in Christ? Is it increasing your heart for the lost? Is it bettering your witness? If not, can you truly tell me wallowing in this anger is good for you? If this anger is leading you away from the things God says to draw close to and closing your heart off to the things God said be open to, you are not right to be in your anger. Satan is using it in your story. No longer hold onto this anger, give it to God immediately, and choose to replace that anger with a love that seeks to mirror God’s unconditional love. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2092