Jonah Archives - Faithfully Stepping

Jonah’s Big Crisis

I was reading in the book of Jonah the other day as I make my way through the end of the Old Testament. There’s a small verse in chapter one that snags my attention every time I read it.

Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah…

Jonah 1:17

What I love about this verse is that it shows that God is always working on our behalf, even when we don’t realize it. Jonah gets himself into a mess and hits his big crisis moment. At this very moment in time, he was sinking to the bottom of the depths of the ocean. Talk about a crisis!

His Dire Circumstances

He later has these words to say about his experience.

I sank beneath the waves, and the waters closed over me. Seaweed wrapped itself around my head.

Jonah 2:5

These are some pretty dire conditions that Jonah finds himself in. His crisis comes on hard and fast. At this point, we’re not even sure if he’s had a chance to pray yet. He’s been thrown overboard into the choppy waves in the midst of a terrible storm and is currently sinking to the bottom of the ocean. How long do you have when you’re sinking to the bottom of the ocean? Not long, I’d say. We get the idea he’s already out of oxygen, waiting for his demise.

God Knows Our Future

If God had waited even a few moments longer, we wouldn’t have the story of Jonah. If God would have waited for Jonah to reach out to him, I don’t know that the fish would have gotten to him in time. Instead, God began working before Jonah started praying. From the way the verse is worded, we get the idea that God arranged for the fish to get Jonah long before Jonah ever needed the fish.

That’s the amazing thing about having God on our side. He sees the future and knows what we need before we do, before we’ve even had a chance to pray about it. He works on our behalf before we know the words to pray.

There’s incredible encouragement in that thought, in knowing God is working on your behalf today.

God’s Working on Your Future Today

God was already working. He knew what was in Jonah’s future and was already actively bringing about the pieces of his life to work out His plan in Jonah’s life.

God is doing the same for you and me today. He already knows what’s in our future. Nothing that happens in our lives takes him by surprise. He is already acting on behalf for you for your future, for things that haven’t even happened yet.

If you can trust him with your future, you can trust him with today. So be encouraged today and know that God is working on your behalf today both with what you can see and what you can’t!

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Our Harrowing Experience Last Night

Have you ever had an experience where you just knew God had his hand on you and protected you? That happened to our family last night.

Last night, we were driving home from our date night. Matt’s parents watch the kids on Thursday nights, so Matt and I can go on a date. We picked the kids up and began driving home. Matt was driving, going about 70 mph on the highway. I was looking at my phone, telling Matt about a text I had just received when he suddenly jerked the car hard to the left, swerving into the other lane. My head jerked, and I caught the flash of a car that had already passed us.

It happened so fast, I barely saw the car. I watched as it flew down the highway and weaved in and out of traffic. We drive on this particular highway quite often, and there are always people driving too fast. But this one takes the cake. I have no idea how fast the car was going, but it was fast!

My heart racing, I glanced over at Matt. “Good reflexes. You okay?”

“Yeah, I saw him in the rear view mirror,” Matt said.

The kids were all quiet for a moment; then Maggie asked, “What happened?”

“Somebody was driving way too fast,” I said.

It took several moments for my heart rate to slow down. That had been too close. I have no idea what that driver was thinking. We were just driving in our lane. If Matt hadn’t moved when he did… it wouldn’t have been good. I spent a moment in quiet, thanking God for His protection of our family.

Seeing God’s Hand of Protection

There are times like that when you can easily look back and know with all certainty that God was protecting you and working in your life. I wonder how many times, though, God is working in and through our lives, and we have no idea. We just don’t see it because it’s not as obvious.

We’ve been so conditioned to just write God out of the story of our lives. We don’t even realize that we are erasing God from our lives.

Studying the Book of Jonah

I’m reading the book of Jonah right now in my morning time, and we’re also doing Jonah in our small group study on Tuesday nights. On Tuesday, we were talking about all the times God showed up directly in Jonah’s life. Matt asked the question, “What would happen if we just erased God from Jonah’s story?”

It really made me think. Honestly, it wouldn’t be that hard to do. Let’s look at the story of Jonah and God’s involvement in his life.

Seeing God’s Hand in Jonah’s Life

There are nine times we see God work directly in Jonah’s life. The book of Jonah is only four chapters long. It’s short, yet we see God acting over and over again in this small book.

Look at the nine times God directly does something.

God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh 1:2
God sent a storm 1:4
God prepares a fish to swallow Jonah 1:17
God tells the fish to spit Jonah out 2:10
God tells Jonah a second time to go to Nineveh 3:2
God grows a small tree to give Jonah shade 4:6
God creates a worm that destroys the tree 4:7
God causes a hot wind 4:8
God rebukes Jonah 4:9

Erasing God from Jonah’s Story

What would it look like if we totally erased God from the story of Jonah? We would have a very different story to tell. Yet, we could easily do it. Jonah could just have as easily done that. Here’s how Jonah could have seen it.

Jonah gets a feeling he should go to Nineveh.
A storm comes up while he’s out at sea
He gets thrown in the water, but a fish happened to be swimming nearby and swallows him
A few days later, the fish spits him out
He decides maybe he should go to Nineveh after all
He finds a small tree to give him shade
A worm comes and destroys his tree
A hot wind develops
He feels badly about how he acted

Erasing God in Our Own Lives

Do you see how easy it was to replace God in Jonah’s story? It’s pretty easy to take each of the times God directly acted in Jonah’s life and replace it with just life or circumstances.

It makes me wonder, how many times have I removed God from my story? How many times have I “rewritten” my story, erasing God from the picture. Things happen, and I just chalk it up to “life happening.”

Looking For God’s Hand

Jonah’s story encourages me because it makes me believe that God is more actively involved in my life than I give Him credit for. I believe if we really understood God, we would see His hand a whole lot more in our lives.

Let’s choose to actively seek God in the mundane of our ordinary day. I believe if we start searching for His involvement, we will end up seeing it so much more.

Then when you do see Him at work in your life, write it down so you don’t forget. I think we will begin to understand that God is alive and at work more in our lives than we ever realized.

For More Encouragement

For more encouragement on this topic, read When You Can’t See God Working in Your Life. If life looks different than you thought it would, and you’re having a hard time seeing God working in your own life, two books to encourage you would be It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way: Finding Unexpected Strength When Disappointments Leave You Shattered by Lysa TerKeurst or my book, The Hidden Pain: When You Fear God is No Longer Blessing Your Life.

Faithfully Stepping

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