Jonah’s Epiphany

Meditations for Ragamuffins

August 3, 2023

Jonah’s Epiphany 

“But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows.   For my salvation comes from the Lord alone.”

Jonah 2:9

For the Christian, every crisis in our lives is a revelation of the depth of our faith and trust in God. How we respond in the crisis, including a crisis of our own making reveals what we truly believe about God. In Jonah’s case, his refusal to follow God’s call on his life created the crisis. Jonah’s first response was to try and run from God. However, Jonah quickly found he could not outrun God: “I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and Lord, you heard me!” (Jonah 2:2). This epiphany resulted in Jonah’s affirmation, “For my salvation comes from the Lord alone.”

God’s call took Jonah totally out of his comfort zone, which is why his first instinct was to flee. There may well be times in our life when God’s call will direct us to places we would rather not go. Accordingly, few of us courageously pray with Jabez, “Oh, that you would bless me and expand my territory! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!” (1 Chronicles 4:10). We are not at all certain God will do for us as He did for Jabez and grant our request.

Sometimes fear of being drawn out of our comfort zones immobilizes us from responding to the call of God on our lives in the normal, everyday ebb and flow of life. When it’s all said and done, the real measure of our life is not so much whether we traipse off to Nineveh with Jonah or face up to our border bullies with Jabez. Rather, the measure of our lives will be in the quality of our interest and compassion for those we encounter each day. Do we make quality time for a child, express genuine appreciation for the delivery person, share our abundance with those with less, and do we gladly bear interruptions to our agenda?

My Takeaway: If we remember our salvation comes from the Lord alone, and thus like Jonah, with songs of praise fulfill all our vows to the Lord, we will have rightly revealed Christ Jesus in our mortal flesh.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2023 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.