A Bit Too Close To The Heart

Well,  leave it to God to show you something that makes you feel a bit queasy on the inside!

I'm sure you are all familiar with the temptation to try and show the world around you your "best you".  It is a temptation that we all fall into at times--sometimes a lot of the time.  Not long ago God decided to show me that my outside "shine" was maybe not as consistent as I would like to think when compared to my heart.

A while back I came into contact with someone who hurt a member of my family.  I can't share the details, but suffice it to say that I wasn't too concerned about this person's relationship with Jesus--I just wanted this person and the situation to disappear.  The Lord convicted me of my attitude and said to me that I really didn't want this person to be saved because of the hurt that had been caused. 

My attitude was selfish and didn't at all reflect the heart of Jesus.

I was reminded of Jonah.  Here was a prophet of God who was sent with a message of repentance to Ninevah but he wanted none of it.  Jonah hated the Ninevites as they were a harsh, oppressive and powerful people who caused the Israelites nothing but problems.

God told Jonah to go and reach out to them so they could have the opportunity to come to the Lord for salvation.  Again, Jonah was too caught up in his own "issues" to want to obey God in this.  So what did he do? 

He ran.

We all run.  We run when we justify our attitudes toward a people group that looks so different from us that we begin to call them "them" so as to make ourselves feel better that we really don't like them at all and just wish that we wouldn't have to have anything to do with them.  We run when we are asked by God to do something on His behalf that makes us feel very uncomfortable and so we choose to justify not obeying with many logical excuses.  We run when we get so consumed with ourselves and our own lives that there is no time left to actually help someone else out.  The list is long--but we really do run!

It's not pretty.  In fact, it's kind of ugly when that part of us is shown to us by God.  But there is hope!

You see, God didn't give up on Jonah.  He went to great lengths in order to "help" Jonah obey His commands.  Eventually Jonah---the prophet of God---made his way to Ninevah and preached the message of repentance and salvation and many people there were saved.  God showed compassion on the Ninevites and to disobedient Jonah by not letting him walk away forever.

It would be nice to say that when Jonah obeyed and many people were saved through the message he spoke that he finally came around and "got right" with God.  But that wouldn't be true to what the Bible says.  At the end of chapter 4 we see Jonah justifying his selfishness by petulantly saying to God that he was right in thinking that He would save the Ninevites if they heard the message!  Can you imagine that!  Jonah saw the great work of God and maintained his disobedient and angry attitude and blamed God for saving them.

This is a bit too close to the heart for me, because I have to ask myself this question:  am I any better than Jonah?

Jesus loves far more broadly and deeply than we can imagine.  His "global" perspective dwarfs my puny ideas that too often get stalled with looking at things selfishly.  Today, let's cry out to Jesus to forgive us for not loving as we should and ask that the Holy Spirit would fill us with that same love that changed the lives of thousands of Ninevites many long years ago.

Let's ask the question:  "Lord, where do you want me to go, and what do you want me to do in order to serve you well.  Fill me with your love and power so that I will want to do your will."

Thanks Jesus, we need a God who never gives up on us. . . . . .