Jonah

    " What to you mean sleeper? Arise, call upon your God; perhaps  your God will consider us, so that we may not perish."(vs.6)  " For whose cause is this trouble upon us."(vs8) The people knew this was no ordinary storm. they knew it had purpose. Jonah told them what they needed to do to stop the storm but they fought it and tried to resist. Despite Jonah's unequivocal plea to be throne into the tumultuous sea, they strove to row their way to shore. " Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them."(vs.13) It always seems to happen that we try to exhaust every option before coming to the Lord. Like He is the Ace in our deck. But we save Him for our craziest games. When did the Lord become our last resort? " so they picked up Jonah, and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from raging. See what goodness the Lord has? He's waiting on the sidelines wanting to calm the storm for us, but we wait. We wait to use him. Our desire to exhaust every option before allowing the Lord to step in only exhausts us. God never desires for us to go at it alone. " now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah."(vs. 17) Notice, " the Lord had prepared," signifies a previous plan, that is now being fulfilled. Despite Jonah's disobedience, the Lord still desired to take care of him. God will never force Himself on us. He waits patiently on the side for us to call out His name. God still desired to calm the storm; the Lord still sought to keep Jonah safe. He sent a whale to swallow Jonah in-order to take him out of the conflict. It may not have been Jonah's ideal solution but God allowed him to make his own decision and when he failed, God sent a whale to swallow him. He does the same for us. For some reason God doesn't do small scale.  God does whatever He has to to accomplish His will. Apparently God knew it would take a whale swallowing Jonah, for him to submit to His will. Jonah sat in a belly of a whale for 3 days and 3 nights in order for him to learn brokenness - sitting in stomach acid, smelling the decay of fish, thinking of all the places he would rather be, thinking if he had only done it the Lord's way. I wonder what would have happened if Jonah  said, " yes" to the Lord from the beginning. Sometimes God has to send a great fish to swallow us to get our attention. to sit. to wait. to think. to cry out. to obey. 

                     Lets try saying, "YES" to the Lord and see what happens.

                                   let me know how it goes.