Look Again!
Jonah 2:4 “So I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.”
Have you ever had something happen in your life that was not what it seemed at first? That’s happened to me a lot over the years. When I had a car wreck at age 16 that almost ended my life I thought that it was the worst thing that could ever happen. I’m sure Jonah felt that way as he sat in the belly of the whale. He did not want to go to Nineveh, and share the grace of God. So God commanded the fish to swallow him. During the days that he was in the fish he was able to take a second look and realize that the directive from the Lord was not as offensive as it first seemed. It’s like that for us many times in this life when we get an order from God that seems very unpleasant and we want to get away and ignore God; but as Christians you and I must look again at what God has commanded us not with our eyes, but with God’s vision.
I’m certain that as John watched the crucifixion his heart fell. He saw the man that He had loved and followed for three years being nailed to a cross; I am certain that he felt as if his entire world was collapsing around him. However, John was also in the upper room three days later as the risen Jesus appeared, and at that time his world was restored because he got a glimpse of God’s glory.
Many times in this life (most times), we look at the negative instead of the positive. Over the past 22 years I have discovered that the easiest way to stay in a state of depression is to magnify the negative over the positive. If we constantly focus on the “what if’s” then we will miss the “what can’s” that God wants us to see.
If Jonah had concentrated on the surroundings that he was in instead of trying to seek what God had in plan for him then he never would have been able to say that I will look again on God’s holy temple, and if John and the others had concentrated on what their eyes saw then they would not have been able to see clearly what God was doing, and they might have missed the new temple that God raised in Jesus. If you concentrate on the problems you are facing then you will miss the glory of God!
Father, I thank You for allowing me to see Your glory, and I ask that as these problems come to me that You would give me the strength, and the wisdom to see through Your eyes the good that You have for me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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Yes, You Can Ministry 