"When we think of the Prophet Jonah, we normally look at his disobedience, and his rebellion, and we normally use Jonah as a lesson, or many lessons on how not to do things. But what we often miss, is Jonah’s great faith in God. It is phenomenal. His belief, that all things are possible with God. Jonah’s just phenomenal belief in the power of God, is an example for us all.
And you’re probably thinking, what am I talking about.
Well let’s look at it:
Jonah, a prophet of God was commanded by God to go to Nineveh, the most evil nation on the face of the earth and preach repentance. But in his disobedience Jonah went in the opposite direction towards Tarshish. And when God finally turned Jonah around with the use of a great storm and a whale. Jonah then goes to Nineveh, preaches repentance. God opens the Ninevites hearts, they all repent, even the animals are in sack cloth and ashes. This is the greatest gentile revival ever in the history of the world. But then, in Jonah chapter 4:v1 we get the reason why Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh.
When God brought revival and the Nivevites repented and turned to God. It says: “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. 2 So he prayed to the LORD, and said, “Ah, LORD, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.”
In other words, the reason Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh, was not because he feared for his life. He didn’t care for his life. But was because he knew that God would cause them to repent.
Now, Jonah’s obvious uncharitable wrongs aside here, just think about this:
I mean, a modern equivalent would be, a missionary, trying to get out of going to North Korea, not because, he was worried about his life and that he’d suffer horrific torture. But because he knew that God would cause the whole nation of North Korea to repent and believe the Gospel.
Jonah clearly had the type of faith, the belief in the power of God that Jesus told of in Mark 11:23: "Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him."
But let me ask you:
How often do you pray, and I can include me in this as well,
And your prayer is nothing opposed to God’s will, it’s not a selfish prayer like asking God to give you a BMW.
It is with the right motive for the advancement of God’s Kingdom. "Thy Kingdom come".
But you pray it with little belief that God will do something?
Or how often do we witness to someone not really believing that God will save them?
When we pray to God, and when we do things for God, sometimes it's like we’re writing with a pen, but we’re not expecting any ink to come out. And we’re not really too concerned if it doesn’t.
Instead of focusing on Jonah's faults, and there are many. And we have many also. I think maybe it’s time we should start to look as his just phenomenal belief in the great and awesome power of God, and let it be an example to us all.
I mean, how many times, do we look at the great and amazing promises that God has given us in His Word for prayer and in evangelism? And then we spend so much time trying to reason within ourselves that it doesn’t really mean what it says it means..."
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Jonah 4:1-2 - Prayer-Jonah’s Phenomenal Belief in the Awesome Power of God, A Lesson To Us All-Kevin Williams - 45 min
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