“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me” (Jonah 1:2).
TEXT — Jonah 1:1-3
Message
Someone said, “It is not doing the thing which we like to do, but liking to do the thing which we have to do, that makes life blessed.” Some people run in circles, looking for their purpose in life. Others spend their energy and resources running away from what they know as their assignment. Jonah belonged to the latter category. He heard the voice of God, understood what God wanted him to do, and decided to run away from the task.
That is the story of Jonah, the son of Amittai. He received a clear message from God directing him to preach a message of repentance to the Assyrian city of Nineveh. God wanted Jonah to reach out to the great city of 120,000 people with a message of hope because the city’s wickedness was much. Jonah knew what to do but did not want to do it. Instead, he decided to run away from the assignment and head towards Tarshish. It is a classic case of dereliction of duty for a runaway preacher.
God’s message to Jonah is relevant to every Christian today. More than at any other time in the history of humanity, ungodliness and wickedness are rife in the public and personal lives of religious practitioners. The name of the Lord is often brought to disrepute by many who, like Jonah, have refused to represent Christ and talk about His love to sinners. Just like He wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh, God wants us to go to our towns and cities and share the good news of Jesus with them. We must, therefore, recognise our assignments and leave our comfort zones to execute them.
No one has any excuse for not doing the Lord’s assignment. Jonah failed to respond promptly, and he paid dearly for his stubbornness. We should learn from his turbulent journey to the most harrowing depths of the sea, which turned him into a three-day nonstop prayer warrior. God later had mercy on him and rescued him from untimely death. You would want to travel differently, wouldn’t you? Then, go and do your assignment today.
Listed among “500 most powerful people on the planet” by the Foreign Policy magazine in 2013, Pastor (Dr.) William F. Kumuyi is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM) headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. DCLM started in 1973 as a 15-member Bible study group right in Kumuyi’s apartment at University of Lagos where he was a lecturer. His revolutionary Bible teaching on personal holiness and commitment to evangelism soon gained so much traction and resulted in a widespread revival.
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