(This week’s devotions are based on Sunday’s message: Grace for All…Grace Pursues – LISTEN HERE)
Jonah 2:3 You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.
Jonah is praying to the Lord. When he says, “You hurled me into the deep..” is he blaming the Lord or recognizing truth about the Lord.
What do you think?
There is no question that Jonah wouldn’t have jumped overboard by himself. In Jonah 1 he recognized before the sailors that the storm was his fault. After the casting of lots, Jonah was determined to be the one that was causing the storm by his running from the Lord. And while he instructed the sailors to throw him overboard, he knew it was the Lord who hurled him into the depths of the sea.
Why was this important for Jonah to recognize?
Why is it important for us to recognize?
While the Lord isn’t the cause of evil, he allows times of testing to come into our lives to refine our faith and purify it for himself. While God can and does carry out punishment on evil, when he allows testing in the life of his child, it is a discipline to turn us back to him and strengthen our faith in him.
The Lord DID hurl Jonah into the sea because his heart was on the run from the Lord. It really was the grace of God that allowed this crisis to occur to awaken Jonah’s heart to the heart of the Lord. Jonah was running. The trip into the belly of the fish stopped him.
Even for God’s people, the Lord does not promise a life without challenges. But for the Lord’s children, the challenges are opportunities to solidify and strengthen our relationship with the Lord.
King Solomon knew this as he wrote:
Proverbs 3:11 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, 12 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.
The psalmist knew this:
Psalm 66: 10 For you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver.
11 You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs.
12 You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water,
but you brought us to a place of abundance.
The Apostle Paul knew this:
2 Corinthians 1:8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters,[a] about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again.
And Jesus himself knew this:
Isaiah 53:10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
The Lord wants you to know this. It is his love that “hurls us into the sea” so we might rely on him more, believe in him and come through our time of testing with a stronger faith and reliance on the Lord.
You may be “in the sea” right now. Know that the Lord is there to see you through the time of testing to triumph!
Apply: Are you in a season of life where it feels like you are drowning in the sea? What possibly is the Lord trying to mold in you and of you even as he permits this season of testing to occur?
Prayer: Lord thank you for even the challenges of life, for in them I turn to you more and learn to trust you better. AMEN.