Giving No Thought to Disobedience
Jonah 1:3-5
But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord , and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord . [4] But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. [5] Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.
I had a sports coach of my daughters team post something on an app Sunday morning about an upcoming volunteer opportunity. The coach then left specific instructions to either private message or email coaches if your child could make it to this opportunity. Then 1 after another (kids and parents) began to leave comments on the post. I then began to wonder if we ever listen! Do we pay attention to things said to us, or do we just not care? Those thoughts then led me to Jonah and I realized that yes, we listen, we just don’t obey.
When you look at Jonah you realize he had to have listened because he know what God had asked him to do. He then choose to disobey and headed in the opposite direction. Just as I discussed in my last devotion about looking out for only our selves, that’s exactly what Jonah was doing. You have mariners that I’m sure had faced many storms, yet the Bible says they were afraid. There was Jonah fast asleep. He didn’t seem to care about the fact that he was going against God! Jonah’s disobedience looked as if it would cost these fellas their ship and even their lives. What about our disobedience? Have you ever thought about how your disobedience could affect others? When in school we always got mad at the kid who got in trouble and caused the whole class to be punished in some way. Those, just like here with Jonah are physical things we can see. What about unseen things? Have you ever given thought to what the consequences may be to your disobedience? How it may affect not only others, but even your future? We too often just do our own thing like we are above the rules or something. When we tell our children to do something and they disobey there are consequences. Not only for them, but at times it can affect others. We are no different when it comes to God. God instructs us thru His Word, thru preaching, and when we disobey there will be repercussions. I’ll ask you today, not only are you listening, but are you obeying what God has for YOU in YOUR life?
God bless you today!
Bro. Josh Richardson