What is it that motivates us to do God’s will? For some of us, we may work best for the Lord when things are going well for us. For some, when there are challenges we might find ourselves focused more on spiritual things. Or maybe there is an incident which propels us to do the work of the Lord more urgently. Jonah did not want to do God’s work and so God brought an incident upon him to get him to change his mind. So desperate was Jonah to avoid his assignment that he tried to flee from God!
Jonah 1:1-3
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil[a] has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
Of course, there was no fleeing from God. Jonah learned his lesson and was blessed that God gave him an opportunity to serve. We, too, are blessed with the things in life that cause us to think about how we should be serving God and not just wasting the talents that He has given us.
— Sebastian Stroughter
