Gratefully
speaking… In His Word 11-23-2020
Have you
ever felt so grateful for something, or for someone in your life only to find
that it was short lived? Follow the story of Jonah and think again about all God has done in your life.
Jonah had
run from God’s direction, then he finally gave in to do what He said and told
the people of Nineveh to get right with God. Then he went to watch to see what
was going to happen to the city.
He was
sitting in the scorching hot sun. To be true, he was probably sitting there
fussing about the fact that he knew God would forgive the people of Nineveh. He
also kind of felt useless as a messenger in the first place so I am sure he was
not happy, but then God provided a plant to shelter him. It gave him reason to
be grateful. Aha! God was not done with
Jonah yet!
Then
Jonah went out to the east side of the city and made a shelter to sit under as
he waited to see what would happen to the city. And the Lord God arranged for a
leafy plant to grow there, and soon it spread its broad leaves over Jonah’s
head, shading him from the sun. This eased his discomfort, and Jonah was very
grateful for the plant.
But God
also arranged for a worm! The next morning at dawn the worm ate through the
stem of the plant so that it withered away. Jonah 4:5-7
Through the
book of Jonah we read the story of a man who was told by God what to do only to
try to get away with not doing it. He found out he had to do what God wanted
one way or another and then he still was not content. So God caused the worm to
eat the plant to teach him a good life lesson.
Then God
said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?”
“Yes,”
Jonah retorted, “even angry enough to die!”
Then the
Lord said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it
there. It came quickly and died quickly. But Nineveh has more than 120,000
people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t
I feel sorry for such a great city?”
Jonah 4: 9-11
Sometimes
good things happen to us that do not last too long. Sort of like people who are
grateful because a feast we call Thanksgiving in North America is all about
being thankful. Then they stop and start getting greedy about getting a gift
for themselves, or finding a reason to party.
The thing
is the following season is one of Christ, and if anything, we should focus on
giving Him thanks for coming to our rescue from such darkness as these people
of Nineveh were in. We were just as rotten in our world as they were, and God
sent the Christ Jesus to save us with His grace. So our gratefulness from
Thanksgiving should flow into the gratefulness of Christ giving Himself for us!
We should not allow it to be eaten by the worm of greed or pride! Instead we
should care about others, bring them the joy we have received as we accepted
the truth of Christ as our Savior and Lord. We should put the focus on thanking
Him more and share gratefulness with those around us instead of just worrying
about what gift to give someone that will make us be the best gift givers.
Jonah
thought it was about his being used to tell the people to repent, but really
his story was about him learning to be grateful for the life God gave him.
That’s my
take on it anyway!
He could
be grateful the ‘Big Fish’ spit him out, he could be grateful for the captain
not killing him but throwing him overboard even! And he should have given God thanks for saving
the people of Nineveh not complaining about God’s goodness but rejoicing in it!
Let’s
take one more thing from this story. Let’s learn to focus on the other person
and how to do what's right in God’s eyes in their behalf. Help others to see
Jesus in us this season ahead and be thankful for more than just the gifts, but
the main Gift from God, Jesus His Son.
Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Your Son, Jesus to this world that we
could be saved from the dark world we live in and brought into Your marvelous
light every day! Thank you for loving us enough to be patient with us and help
us to learn to share this with others, in Jesus’ name, amen.
Read some
more? Jonah 1:1- 10, Jonah 2:1-10, Jonah
3:1-10 and 4:1-10.