Help Me Fail by Anthony ThompsonÖrnek

Day 2: Jonah's Resistance

Key Scripture: Jonah 3:1-3 - "Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 'Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.' Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh."

As I am writing this devotional, I feel so much failure. I probably shouldn’t be typing that - but I feel the nudge for you to know.

I literally just sent a text to a couple of my closest friends basically saying - “I feel like a failure.” They responded pretty quickly and basically said, “So do I.”

I chuckled to myself. Here I am writing a devotional titled, “Help Me Fail,” and I feel like the biggest failure of them all.

Life is beautiful, isn’t it?

Before we dig into Jonah a bit, I want to remind you of one of my favorite quotes from Winston Churchill which says, “Success is moving from one failure to the next without any loss of enthusiasm.”

What a picture right?

The scriptures paint the picture like this in Proverbs, “The righteous fall seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.”

How good is God’s Word right? Another banger in Proverbs to give you courage. Heck, it’s giving me courage right now.

Today’s failure episode centers on Jonah.

What a guy. Love this guy. I can still remember learning about Jonah and the whale in the children’s church. Our teacher would use felt cut-outs and a felt board to illustrate Jonah eaten by a fish.

Jonah totally blew it.

God gave him a command, and he failed. Plain and simple. Jonah then went in the opposite direction of what God told him to do because he thought he knew better.

The story of Jonah would have never happened though if Jonah had not learned from his failure.

There would be no book of Jonah. There would be no illustrated felt board in the children’s church.

However, Jonah learned from his failure, and repented, resulting in the lives of thousands being CHANGED forever.

I feel the need to pause here for a moment with you.

Take a deep breath.

Has the Lord asked you to do something and you are running from it?

Like Jonah, you think you know better, but in reality, you are going in the opposite direction of what the Lord is asking you to do.

What is the Lord speaking to you right now?

In this instance, your feeling of failure may be self-inflicted. The scriptures tell us, “If you know the right thing to do and do not do it, it is sin.”

The Lord LOVES you. He is not trying to make you do things HE has not created you for.

I know this may feel like a hard word, but know that the Lord LOVES you and wants GOOD things for you.

Like you, I have had many moments where I THOUGHT I KNEW BETTER.

I didn’t know better. I was a fool, and it cost me.

If the Lord is nudging you right now to come back to Him, don’t be afraid. No one would have ever known the story of Jonah if he didn’t learn from his failure.

Repentance is powerful.

Thought-Provoking Questions:

• In what areas of your life are you resisting God's call, and how can failure be a signal to realign with His purpose?
• How does Jonah's story inspire you to face your fears and embrace God's plans for growth and redemption?

Daily Affirmation: Today, I will not run from my divine assignments. My resistance is a stepping stone to my purpose.