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Have you ever run from God? I mean you know what He wants you to do, but that doesn’t really match up with what you had planned, so you head down a different path. The funny thing about God is, He’s God. That means what He wants to happen is going to happen one way or the other. Look at Jonah. In Chapter One of his book, verses 1 & 2 tell us:
1. The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh.”
You know the story. Jonah had his own ideas. He took off in the other direction, got thrown off the boat, swallowed by a big fish, cried out to God, the fish spat him out, and the Lord told him again to go to Nineveh. This time he did.
Now we may not run from God like Jonah, but many of us have had our own ideas, which, in essence, is running. I know that a long time ago the Lord called me to be a youth minister. But I had my own ideas – I was going to write sports. And you know what? I did write sports. Over the next several years I did just that. I also went through ups and downs, heartache, trials and all kinds of things, and eventually I ended up writing technical brochures and being nothing short of miserable. I didn’t get swallowed by a big fish, but I was not happy. I ended up going back to school and getting my secondary teaching degree, and for the last 20+ years I’ve been teaching and ministering to youth. Man, I wish I would have just trusted God from the get-go, but I had my own ideas.
Like Jonah, God brought me back around and got me on His path. God will complete His plan some way. We can affect it and, through our lack of trusting, we may cause consequences and a harder road for ourselves, but He will get us there.
Read: Take a few minutes and read the account of Jonah in Chapter 1 of his book: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jonah%201-4&version=NLT
Put into Action: Take some time to really look at that passage. Let God speak to you. Is there a place in your life that you have “run” from God? A place where your own idea trumped what God had planned for you? Take this time to do business with the Lord. Ask Him to get you back on His track and then follow His lead.
