Thursday, March 25, 2010

Devotional Snapshot 57 - Omnipotence

"Omnipotence may build a thousand worlds, and fill them with bounties; omnipotence may powder mountain into dust, and burn the sea, and consume the sky, but Omnipotence can not do an unloving thing toward a believer...a hard thing, an unloving thing from God toward one of His people is quite impossible." Daily Help Charles H. Spurgeon Jan. 6

Jonah 1:1-3 "Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me." But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD..."

You know why I love this story? Because God had a plan for Jonah's life and even though Jonah was unwilling, the plan happened anyway!

There may be something You ask of us and our flesh is unwilling to do---ask for funds from people for missionary work, work in a small non-growing area, be a church planter, go to Africa, love the unlovely, speak about Jesus to a stranger or a friend. This story gives me confidence that You will work Your will out in our lives even if we purposely go another direction.

The Lord sent wind, the Lord determined the lot, the Lord prepared the fish. His great good purpose would be done.

He displayed His love to Jonah; He would love Nineveh.

Jonah 2:1,2 tells us it was Jonah's affliction that caused him to cry out to the Lord. "Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish's belly. And he said: "I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction..."

Even in Jonah's running away he never denied the reality of God and His powerful control of events. Jonah 1:9 "...I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land." Jonah 1:12 "...For I know that this great tempest is because of me." He knew who he was running from but forgot how determined God was to bring His decrees about in an individual life.

We so often say "I am expendable. Help can come from another place," as was said in Esther 4:14. But we can not dismiss God's leading lightly. For if it is His will to do it through me, unrest and trouble will be my lot until I turn in submission to His plan.

Sometimes I am the only one who can accomplish a specific will of God because God has so determined it to be this way.

Are you running away? Stop and fall into His loving hands and say "Yes". He will do it in you.

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