"And He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”"
Matthew 22:37-40
Ok lets take a little walk down to the book of Jonah. So God told Jonah to go to Nineveh because the city had fallen into evil ways. Now Jonah did not listen and tried running away. But we all know there is no escaping God :) So, when Jonah did go to Nineveh he spoke as God said, but guess what happened ... We read in Jonah 3 : 4-5 , " 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. "
And it didn't stop there. But the king also joined them in fasting and repenting and gave a decree to everybody. Now we read in verse 10 , "When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it."
Now what was Jonah's reaction to all of this ? He was mad. He was mad at God for relenting from disaster. Chapter 4 is a beautiful chapter where God explains to Jonah His heart. Encourage you to read it.
Now here is the thing , sometimes we can be Jonahs. We forget God's heart in doing things. We go to school. college, work , take care of the home like a mundane thing.. And we forget God's heart in it all... When we wake up every morning , does our heart abound in love for Him who set us free ? As we walk into where God has placed us by His grace and for His glory, do we God's heart in it all ? Do we see His purposes and plans for where we are ? Do we understand His heart ? Or are we so consumed with ourselves or in the technicality of "doing things" that we miss the point of it all ?
And this is my prayer , Lord teach us to love You with all our heart, soul and mind. Lord teach us to love our neighbour as ourselves.
For those interested in reading chapter Jonah Chapter 4 , here it is :
"But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the LORD said, “Do you do well to be angry?”
Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” 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?” "
God Bless You
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