Jonah 1:1-3 (NLT)
The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.” But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.
Sometimes, we feel like God may be telling us something. We feel like maybe He wants us to talk to a certain person or go to a certain place. We feel like it anyway… Oftentimes, we chalk it up to food poisoning or headache medicine and ignore it.
Then you have situations like the one Jonah found himself in. The Lord actually gave Jonah a direct message. A specific message. God probably wrote it down on a holy post-it note (pure conjecture on my part - you will not find this in scripture!). Jonah didn’t have to interpret it or take it to his pastor. God left nothing to Jonah’s imagination.
Jonah ran anyway.
Imagine getting a direct command from God and running away from it. We like to think we’d never do that but if we’re honest, we do it every day. We make excuses. We do things halfway. We ignore it when we hear God’s voice and keep walking through our life like it never happened.
As you start this week, make sure that you don’t ignore God when He leads you to do something. The only way to do this is to be in constant communication with Him. Talk to Him throughout your day and you won’t have to wonder whether You heard His voice or not. You’ll know.
