December 14 - God is Involved

Christians sometimes think that God is not involved in their daily lives. They think that God is a “laissez-faire” type of God, giving us a lot of freedom and coming back and check with us once-in-a-while. God is not an absentee God. He did not just create the universe and left it to run by itself. He has been breaking into human history and leaving His marks everywhere. The story of Jonah is a good example, there are at least ten times when God initiated actions towards Jonah. Through what God did, Jonah’s life was never the same.

God first called Jonah, telling him the destiny of his life. His one big assignment was to go to Nineveh and call out against it, for their evil had come up to God. When Jonah tried to escape from God’s plan for his life and went to Tarshish, the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea and made a might tempest, threatening to destroy the ship. When Jonah was thrown overboard, God appointed a great fish to swallow him up and Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.

That was not the end for Jonah for God had a plan for him. The Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah out upon dry land. God gave Jonah a second chance by speaking to him again, repeating His original assignment which then Jonah obeyed and went. When the Ninevites repented, God saw it and relented His judgment on the city to the displeasure of the prophet. So God reasoned with Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry?” Jonah went out of the city anyway and built himself a booth to sit under its shade.

The Lord then appointed a plant to give shade to Jonah that day but on the next day, He appointed a worm to attack the plant, so it withered. When Jonah got up in the morning, God appointed a scorching east wind and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head and he was faint. When Jonah got angry at God, God explained His heart to him in pitying the Ninevites who were more precious than the plant.

Somehow it was easier for Jonah to experience God for there was not another person there at the time. It was God and Jonah, the sailors, the fish and the people of Nineveh were just in the background. You need to live out your life with the most important reference point: God and you. That fact that you are His child means that He is involved in every aspect of your life. Much of the things that have happened might have the mark of God’s hand on it but we are not alert about it.

Think now and recall any works of the Lord in your life to this point. Would it be wonderful if He walks with you daily, just you and God while others are just in the background? God gives you the destiny of your life. Do not flee from Him again.