Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Jonah 1:1-2 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city ..."
GOING GOD'S WAY
God pointed Jonah eastward to Nineveh, but, instead, he went west to distant Tarshish. It took a violent storm and a big fish for God to get Jonah going in the right direction.
As you read this devotion are you going in the direction God wants you to go? Are you going God's way as a father, mother, husband, wife, student, friend, or neighbor? Our many failures clearly show that we are so often wrong way disciples of Christ.
Everyday we need to be re-directed, and only God's Word, the Bible, can point us in the right direction. In His Word God points you, first of all, to a place called Calvary, where the Son of God paid the penalty for our sin with His sufferings and death. While in the belly of the fish Jonah returned to the LORD, in Whom alone is salvation. The Spirit and Word work everyday to turn us away from our sin and guilt back to the pardon and peace of the cross.
When God gets our hearts focused on the cross of our Savior, then we are ready and willing to follow Him wherever He leads us. The forgiving love of Christ leads us into a life of love, to a life lived for God and others. His Word maps out for us what this kind of life involves. There we find clear instructions about marriage and family life, about what it means to be a church member, a worker, a neighbor, a friend.
Like Jonah, we often find ourselves going in the opposite direction God wants us to go. Praise God that Jesus never once wavered from the direction God wanted Him to go. He went God's way everyday, and in every way. He even walked into death to atone for the sins of this wayward world. Finally He stepped out of the grave and as our living Savior He gives us life without end.
PRAYER: Lord, in view of your great mercy, lead and guide us everyday in the way you would have us go. For Jesus' sake we ask it. Amen.
