When Adversity Results in God
By Lynette Kittle
Bible Studying:
“When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to You, to Your holy temple” – Jonah 2:7
It’s tough for us to look at folks going by way of hardships, much more tough to expertise them ourselves. Earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, wars, and terror assaults, with the destruction being heartbreaking and difficult for everybody concerned to undergo.
Nonetheless, disasters and tragedies have a means of softening and turning human hearts in direction of God, one thing they might haven’t completed underneath another circumstance. As a result of God has good plans for us, typically we undergo tough issues as a result of they’re the pathway that results in Him, even when they don’t really feel or look like it on the time.
In unhappy instances, we select to consider God and His phrase over our circumstances, which says, “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and to not hurt you, plans to offer you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11).
Jonah’s Change of Coronary heart
Most of us know the story of Jonah, whom God referred to as to convey a warning and preach a message of repentance to the depraved king and kingdom of Nineveh, however he didn’t wish to see them saved, so he ran away. However quickly after being thrown overboard and gulped by a giant fish, Jonah skilled a change of coronary heart whereas sitting within the fish’s stomach.
Though his coronary heart was set earlier than he discovered himself captive, God had a means of working by way of his uncommon life-and-death scenario to alter his thoughts and can to the purpose of wanting God’s will over His personal when it got here to the repentance, rescue, and Salvation of depraved Nineveh.
A King’s Change of Coronary heart
Jonah 3:3-5 describes what occurred after God had the fish spit him out.
“Jonah obeyed the phrase of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a really massive metropolis; it took three days to undergo it. Jonah started by going a day’s journey into the town, proclaiming, ‘Forty extra days and Nineveh might be overthrown.’ The Ninevites believed God. A quick was proclaimed, and all of them, from the best to the least, placed on sackcloth.”
“When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, lined himself with sackcloth and sat down within the mud.”
When Mercy Appears Unfair to Us
It’s straightforward for many people to empathize with Jonah, who initially needed to see Nineveh pay for his or her wickedness and be wiped off the face of the earth. It’s a human feeling tasted by numerous women and men all through the historical past of the world, of eager to see those that look like pure evil held personally accountable for their horrific acts and obtain divine judgment and justice.
Besides, like within the case of Nineveh’s king, God gives mercy if they’re keen to repent, revealing that even kings who face hardships have the chance to show away from their very own evil methods and in direction of a holy and righteous God.
What Is Our Coronary heart Telling Us?
Nonetheless, it’s onerous for us at instances, like Jonah, to suppose that God ought to even give them a chance to repent as a result of we’ve seen the destruction and heartache they’re accountable for on this life. It doesn’t appear honest to us that they trigger a lot struggling and demise and but are capable of obtain mercy as we would like them to pay for his or her evil doings.
So as an alternative of pointing fingers at Jonah for his preliminary refusal to convey the warning and message of repentance to Nineveh, we’d wish to take a look at ourselves in regard to how we might presently be feeling about a number of the leaders in our lifetime who appeared to solely convey wickedness into the world and ask ourselves if we actually wish to see them saved, too.
Intersecting Faith & Life:
Let’s decide to taking time to wish for God to melt hearts and convey repentance to those that are struggling by way of hardships, together with godless leaders who could also be accountable for bringing about a lot of the heartache going down on the earth right this moment.
Additional Studying:
Jonah 1-4
Photograph Credit score: © Getty Photos/coffeekai
Lynette Kittle is married with 4 daughters. She enjoys writing about religion, marriage, parenting, relationships, and life. Her writing has been printed by Give attention to the Household, Resolution, In the present day’s Christian Lady, kirkcameron.com, Ungrind.org, StartMarriageRight.com, and extra. She has a M.A. in Communication from Regent College and serves as affiliate producer for Soul Check TV.
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