Saturday, January 28, 2012

Avoidance Maneuver

Jonah 1:3

Jonah chose to run away from his assignment. His only effective avoidance maneuver was to get away “from the presence of the Lord.” This phrase is used twice in this one little verse. Jonah knew what he was doing. It was cold-blooded disobedience to God.

There is a presence-removing nature to disobedience. Isaiah said it. Our sins separate us from our God. (Isaiah 59:2) For most of us, God is not calling us to go to a cruel, sadistic, blood-thirsty group of people. But He has commanded us to go... to someone.

You don’t have to go to Ninevite-like people to experience God’s presence (unless that is where He told you to go). You do have to be where He wants you to be, doing what you are supposed to be doing.

There have been lots of “God moments” in my life—times when God showed up in a way that can only be understood in spiritual terms. Most of them have been on this side of the pond. Yet, some of the most vivid are times I have experienced overseas.

How many of us have ever really asked God where He would want us to go, or to give Him the freedom to place us and our families in another part of the world for His glory.

Note that Jonah’s call was not to move and stay in Nineveh. His was a short-term mission trip.

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