“Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time: ‘Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.’ This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all.” Jonah 3:1-3 (NLT)
God’s Persistent Grace
God still wants Jonah to go to Nineveh, Capital of Assyria. Iraq. Greatest city in the world. Took 3 days to walk across it. God decides to help the city using this runaway
prophet. How? By transforming him into an army of one.
The word of the Lord came a second time to Jonah. The first time was Chapter 1. Jonah doesn’t deserve a second chance, but he gets one. Lots of people don’t give other
people a second chance. You messed me around, so–I’m done with you. That is the way some of us are, but God is not like that. He came a second time to Jonah.
If you think about it–this doesn’t make any sense. Jonah has let God down. He ran from God and what God wanted him to do. You don’t take an officer that’s just been
court-martialed and let them have command in the most crucial battle in the war. You get the best of the best to be in charge. You don’t give it to somebody like Jonah, but
God does. God has a funny pattern of doing that.
It’s like Jesus with the disciples. Who has the worst track record after Jesus gets arrested? Peter. And he’s the one Jesus leaves in charge when He goes away. God has
this amazing, persistent grace.
God’s Calling
God is by nature, a sending, calling God. His call continues even when we run. After Jonah spent some quality time in the gastrointestinal tract of the great fish, God didn’t
say, “Jonah you’ve had a rough time, take a couple of weeks off.” Instead, God says, “Go. Do what I told you to do.”
God’s mission is not just for the elite, for the well-rested. It is not just for people with money or just for people without money. God’s mission is for you.
The key to being an army of one is to finally see who God really is. God lives to change people, to change the world. God sends people out. God gives people a calling.
In Genesis 12, God gives Abraham a calling.
“The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.’” Genesis 12:1-2 (NLT)
God says, “I’m going to bless you to be a blessing and go to where I will show you.”
Here’s what we realize:
God never blesses you without wanting you to be a blessing
If you are forgiven, he wants you to help others see how they can be forgiven. If God gives you possessions, He wants you to share those blessings.
God wants you to get out of your security zone
He wants you to get out of the familiar. God calls you to do scary things that make you vulnerable. Sometimes we push back against God’s call: But that might take
commitment, time, sacrifice, money! God: You’re right!
The Bottom Line
It is very easy to say, “I’m living for God, I’m a Christian.” But when it comes to day in and day out it’s easy to actually live for nothing more than your schedule, your goals,
your career. We have to ask, “What am I living for?” Where are you moving out of the familiar, the comfortable?
And if we say, “I’m not talented enough, I’m not smart enough, I’m not gifted enough, I don’t have enough time”–the answer is–God doesn’t need any of those things.
All God wants is your will. Give it to Him and become an army of one.
