But the Lord said, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?”

JONAH 4:10-11

We can learn a lot from Jonah. We can relate to him more than we want to admit. First, we often struggle with doing God’s will if it’s not something that we asked God to let us do. Secondly, we often don’t want to agree with God forgiving people that we don’t think should be forgiven. Lastly, we often defend our belief/perspective, even if it’s wrong, for as long as possible.
If you can relate to Jonah, you need to ask yourselves this one question, “Who are you concerned for?”.

WHO ARE YOU CONCERNED FOR?

God was concerned for the people of Nineveh. He wanted to give them a chance to see God, accept God, and follow God. To God the people of Nineveh were NOT a lost cause, but to Jonah they were. Even after God showed mercy to the people of Nineveh, because of there new actions, Jonah was not happy with God’s choice. Jonah was still more concerned with himself and his own perception and wellbeing, than about God’s concern for the lost people in the world.

Are you like Jonah, upset that God showed grace and mercy to someone that you didn’t think deserved it? Are you like Jonah, more concerned about the provisions that God has given you, than the salvation of those that are lost?

CONCLUSION

God was upset with Jonah. God was hoping to teach Jonah and the people of Nineveh something important. Fortunately, we have the opportunity learn from biblical history.

God’s grace and mercy isn’t dependent on our perception of a situation. God knows all, we don’t. Our faith should include trusting God even when our personal feelings cloud our perspective. If God can forgive, so can we.

LET GO of your pride and LET GOD do His will.

We pray that this blog on being concerned for who God is concerned for was a blessing. We hope you search our website, Christian Fellowshipping, for more encouraging ways to fellowship with God and other believes.

If you want to learn about becoming a child of God, and what that means you can read our post titled What is Salvation? and God’s Promise of Salvation.

References:
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.