Our theme for this month: “Mistakes”
Our Bible verse for today: “Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord.” Jonah 1:3 (NLT)
Our thought for today: “The worst mistake we can make is to run away from God.”
I know from personal experience (and you probably do too), that the best and safest place to be is right in the center of God’s will. Any place other than that takes us outside the boundaries within which God can and will bless us. This has often been a hard lesson for me. I can’t count the number of times in my life I made a choice that was clearly unbiblical and then lived to regret it.
Jonah of course, is an extreme case in point. God called Jonah to go to the evil city of Nineveh and to call the people to repent of their wicked ways. But Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh, so he ran away from God and from the calling. Instead of going to Nineveh like God said, he got on a ship and headed for Tarshish – about as far from Nineveh as he could get. And, well, you know the rest of the story. Jonah ended up with three days of time-out in the belly of a big fish followed by being washed up on the beach covered in whale puke. It was a fitting end to a brazen act of rebellion.
Fast forward to our day. How many people do we all know who have walked (or run) away from the Lord, lived well outside of His will, and essentially ended up washed up on some beach covered in whale puke (or drunk in the gutter, or in a homeless shelter, or in jail …). The point is that when we wander outside of God’s will it takes us outside the boundaries within which He can and will bless us. When that happens we have essentially made a choice to live without His blessings.
This life can be hard enough as it is even when we are obeying God. Jesus told us that even the most faithful of His followers will have trouble in this world. But how much worse is it when we intentionally decide to walk away from God and therefore live without His blessings? That’s right – we end up covered in whale puke.
The worst mistake any of us can ever make is to run away from God. The good news is that just like Jonah, God will be happy to take us back, clean us up, and get us moving in the right direction again. We just need to return to Him. I encourage you to do it today.
God Bless,
Oak Hill Baptist Church 