AbandonSample

Most have heard the Bible story of Jonah.

God said, “Go to Nineveh and preach.” Jonah refused and in an effort to run from God, Jonah hopped aboard a boat headed for Tarshish. Not long after the runaway cruise departed, storms tossed the boat about. The sailors prayed to their gods and even threw items overboard, but nothing helped. Meanwhile, the captain found Jonah below deck sleeping like a baby… 

The sailors then cast lots (kind of like rolling dice), to see who was responsible for the squalling mess: All signs pointed to Jonah. When they questioned him, he told them, “…I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land” (Jonah 1:9). Earlier he’d told them he was running from the Lord – that added to who Jonah proclaimed God was, flipped them out! Jonah’s solution: Toss him into the raging sea, and it will become calm. They didn’t buy it and attempted to row back to land. When that failed, the sailors heaved Jonah in, and the seas calmed. 

The seas calmed, but below, a large fish gulped Jonah down. He stayed in the fish's belly for three days and three nights, praying; on the third day, “…the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land” (Jonah 2:10).  And guess what? Jonah made the choice this time to go to Nineveh (read more in Jonah 3-4). 

Like Jonah, we can all recall a time God told us to do one thing, but we chose another or possibly we did nothing at all. Maybe we thought we knew better or we just didn’t want to do what God said; no matter the reason, choosing not to do what God says is sin, and sin disrupts our fellowship with God. When we repeatedly choose to go against God, our fellowship becomes more distant, often leaving us feeling alone or even abandoned. Although we may think God has abandoned us, our sinful choices are definitely to blame for the broken fellowship and feelings of isolation.

But there’s good news. Christ’s grace restores. Through Christ’s redeeming work on the cross, we can be forgiven and fellowship with the Savior can be restored. Even when we’ve chosen our way over God’s, His grace will always be enough to bring us back to him.