{"id":1823,"date":"2014-03-21T15:48:47","date_gmt":"2014-03-21T19:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/?p=1823"},"modified":"2015-02-27T10:20:05","modified_gmt":"2015-02-27T15:20:05","slug":"high-on-the-word-jonah-1-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/2014\/03\/21\/high-on-the-word-jonah-1-2\/","title":{"rendered":"High on the Word: Jonah 1 &amp; 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/highontheword-e1395974762450.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1743\" src=\"http:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/highontheword-e1395974762450.jpg\" alt=\"High on the Word\" width=\"650\" height=\"433\" srcset=\"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/highontheword-e1395974762450.jpg 650w, https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/highontheword-e1395974762450-200x133.jpg 200w, https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/highontheword-e1395974762450-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Jonah 1 &amp; 2\" href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=jonah+1-2&amp;version=NIV\" target=\"_blank\">Jonah 1 &amp; 2<\/a>\u00a0(NIV)<\/p>\n<p>1\u00a0The word of the Lord came to Jonah<br \/>\nson of Amittai: 2\u00a0\u201cGo to the great city<br \/>\nof Nineveh and preach against it, because<br \/>\nits wickedness has come up before me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>3\u00a0But Jonah ran away from the Lord<br \/>\nand headed for Tarshish. He went down<br \/>\nto Joppa, where he found a ship bound<br \/>\nfor that port. After paying the fare, he went<br \/>\naboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from<br \/>\nthe Lord.<\/p>\n<p>4\u00a0Then the Lord sent a great wind on the<br \/>\nsea, and such a violent storm arose that the<br \/>\nship threatened to break up. 5\u00a0All the sailors<br \/>\nwere afraid and each cried out to his<br \/>\nown god. And they threw the cargo into<br \/>\nthe sea to lighten the ship\u2026 [continue reading <a title=\"Jonah 1 &amp; 2\" href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Jonah+1-2&amp;version=NIV\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve read the story of Jonah many times before and although there is, undoubtedly, much wisdom to be gained from this passage, in my mind, it had been reduced to a caricature of a man being swallowed by a big fish, for the sake of quick reference. It&#8217;s not until now that God has opened my eyes to a more personal understanding of this passage. As I was reading this passage this week, I was reminded of a time in my life that I&#8217;m not so proud of, back in my younger years. I had chosen to stray away from God&#8217;s path and follow my own will and desires. It was clear that I was going down a path of destruction that would have led me far away from God.<\/p>\n<p>Out of His unconditional love, God intervened. Just as God brought on a mighty storm to make it impossible for Jonah to run away from God, He put me in a condition where it was impossible for me to continue on my chosen path. He literally plucked me out of my situation. And believe me, it wasn&#8217;t an easy change of course. There was much pain, introspection and repentance on my part and much restoring on God&#8217;s part. I am reminded of Proverbs 3 and specifically v. 12 where it says that &#8220;the Lord disciplines those he loves.&#8221; While he was inside the great fish, Jonah was stripped of his pride and will, and reminded once again of God&#8217;s mercy, grace and sovereignty. When Jonah ran away, he was not only disobeying God but he was missing out on the amazing privilege to be part of God&#8217;s awesome plan. He recognizes this when he says in v. 8, &#8220;Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Even though Jonah obeyed reluctantly, he became an effective instrument thru which God brought the repentance of the Ninevites. Although I&#8217;m sure I was somewhat reluctant and even confused at the time, I am so thankful to God that He forced me out of my situation. Besides avoiding a major disaster in my life, I felt that God had given me a new lease on life. When I came out of the depths of my own &#8220;grave,&#8221; my outlook on life completely changed. I was on fire for God and thankful for every minute of my life, truly appreciating many of the things that I had taken for granted before. I had the privilege to serve Him in many ways and felt closer to Him than ever before. God&#8217;s mercy saves us from deserved punishment but His grace lifts us to a place that is beyond our expectations. His words in Proverbs 3:5-6 come to mind once again, &#8220;Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bloglovin.com\/en\/blog\/10658125\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bloglovin.com\/widget\/bilder\/en\/widget.gif?id=10658125\" alt=\"Follow on Bloglovin\" width=\"150\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you like this post, I would really appreciate it if you could vote for me for Top Mommy Blogs by simply clicking\u00a0<a title=\"Top Mommy Blogs\" href=\"http:\/\/www.topmommyblogs.com\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>. Thanks!!<\/p>\n<p>Linking up with:\u00a0<a title=\"She Shares Truth Linkup\" href=\"http:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/2014\/03\/21\/shesharestruth-jonah-12\/\" target=\"_blank\">She Shares Truth<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a title=\"Faith Filled Friday Linkup\" href=\"http:\/\/www.missionalwomen.com\/31\/post\/2014\/03\/faith-filled-friday-lies-christians-believe-that-destroy-effectiveness-part-two.html\" target=\"_blank\">Faith Filled Friday<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a title=\"Thankful Thursday Linkup\" href=\"http:\/\/carlyblogshere.blogspot.com\/2014\/03\/thankful-thursday-bye-winter.html\" target=\"_blank\">Thankful Thursday<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a title=\"Thriving Thursday Linkup\" href=\"http:\/\/www.servingjoyfully.com\/2014\/03\/19\/thriving-thursday-320\/\" target=\"_blank\">Thriving Thursday<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jonah 1 &amp; 2\u00a0(NIV) 1\u00a0The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2\u00a0\u201cGo to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.\u201d 3\u00a0But Jonah ran away from the &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/2014\/03\/21\/high-on-the-word-jonah-1-2\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"New blog post - High on the Word: Jonah 1 & 2 http:\/\/wp.me\/p3LX6k-tp","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[269,232,737],"tags":[268,270,289,290,303,273,291,304],"class_list":["post-1823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faith","category-faith-family","category-high-on-the-word-2","tag-bible","tag-faith-2","tag-grace","tag-high-on-the-word","tag-jonah-1-and-2","tag-lent","tag-mercy","tag-will"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/highontheword-e1395974762450.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ea16-tp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1823"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6051,"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1823\/revisions\/6051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrosecoloredshades.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}