Jonah was swallowed by a big a fish and spent three days and three nights there. After repenting and the fish vomiting him out, he was ready to follow God’s instructions. This time, he went to Nineveh and preached repentance.

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.  So he prayed to the Lord, and said, “Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it isbetter for me to die than to live!”

 Then the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Jonah 4:1-4

The Assyrians heeded the Lord’s warning and repented, so God relented and did not allow disaster to come upon them. Jonah’s response was displeasure and anger towards God!! He was angry at God because of God’s patience and mercy towards Assyrians.

Isn’t it interesting that God just saved Jonah from the belly of the fish because he repented, but Jonah didn’t want others to have the same advantage or privilege that he just enjoyed? Did he think that his sin wasn’t as big as the Assyrians? Or did he presume he is God’s special person, so those idolaters shouldn’t get the same good treatment that he is getting?

Jonah the prophet had God’s words, but he didn’t have His heart. This is an important aspect of ministry that needs attention. We can prepare, study, and know the word of God. We can learn God’s principles and try to live by them, but those things don’t always translate into having love and mercy for people. We think we love people until the Lord tests our hearts by bringing different situations to see how much mercy and love we can show towards others.

A prophet or a representative of God must have a desire to have God’s heart for people. If we don’t have His heart, we can become frustrated, like Jonah, when God relents His anger instead of being joyful. We can’t be more righteous than God is. When God wants to show mercy and we have a problem with it, we are basically saying that we have set our righteousness above God. That’s self-righteousness!!

This is similar to being an ambassador for our nation and the President wanting to reconcile with a hostile nation;  we, having lived there for a long time and seeing the nation’s wickedness, are not happy that America wants to create peace with them. Well, as an ambassador we’re only there to represent our nation and our president. We are not there to represent ourselves; if we can’t align ourselves with that, then we’re not qualified to be there because our presence will hinder the process!!

Jesus set a wonderful example for us. People humiliated him, spat on him, and ultimately crucified him, but He didn’t get angry with people. He could have been obedient to the cross but angry at the people who were treating him so unfairly. Instead he cried out “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”(Luke 23:34a)  That was a heart of love, mercy, and compassion. If we are going to be effective in reaching people, we need to pray that God would give us His heart and His compassion for people.

The Lord asks Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry?”. The Lord is basically saying that Jonah, you don’t the right to be angry. This anger was Jonah’s own issue; it was not a righteous anger.

There are times that we can be exasperated with a person or a group of people, and we often have our own good reasons. However, the Lord is not treating them the way we think they should be treated. His treatment can cause a fleshly anger in our hearts. We may think they don’t deserve God’s mercy or blessings. The Lord may ask us, also, “Is it right for you to be angry?” If the Lord is choosing to show mercy and kindness then we need to let go of our anger. We need to stay aligned to Him and hear His heartbeat!!

What is interesting about Assyrians is that while they repented at that time, their repentance didn’t last forever and later they went to back to their idolatry. Ultimately this great empire lost its kingdom and Babylonians took over. God dealt with their disobedience eventually, although He showed patience for a long time and was merciful when they were repentant. Jonah became angry and embittered by God’s seemingly slow response, and as a result he didn’t get to enjoy God’s process.

This is a place where we can learn from Jonah to  guard our hearts. God will deal with people and situations in His time and in His way. If we set a certain expectation on how things should happen and our expectations don’t match up with God’s plan,  it could affect our faith and our relationship with the Lord. If He is the Lord, then He is the one who leads us and we’ll follow even when we don’t understand, when things look unfair, and at times others are adversely affected.

Lord help us to have your heart for people and have the courage and desire to do what you ask us !!

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. 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 from the presence of the Lord. Jonah 1:1-3

Jonah was asked by the Lord to go Nineveh and cry out against their wickedness. Jonah did it diametrically different by taking a ship to Tarshish which was in the opposite direction of Nineveh.

Tarshish was the name of a Phoenician port in current Spain which is the West of Israel, and Nineveh would have been East of Israel in the current nation of Iraq. The port of Spain would have been as far West he could have gone at the time. The continent of America had yet to have been discovered by Europeans at the time.

Basically, Jonah was trying to avoid God and His request by running from His assignment as far away as he could. Jonah was a successful prophet as it is mentioned in 2Kings 14:25. The scripture tells us that he was giving the word of the Lord and providing direction to King Jeroboam II. However, he didn’t want to go to Nineveh and preach repentance because the Assyrians were wicked , so he tried to flee from the presence of the Lord!!

God’s call and assignment on Jonah’s life was given to him to be stewarded but not owned. Jonah, regardless of his success or years of walking with God, could not decide which assignments from God he liked and which ones he didn’t.

The same is true for us. We may have been praying for our neighbor’s salvation or for family members for years, and wondering why God hasn’t responded. While God may have been asking us to reach out to our coworker and help them, and we don’t want to do it. We think, our coworker already looks successful, and if they had the Lord like we did, then they would even be more successful. At least now, there is one thing that is negative about them. If they had the Lord, they could be too popular!!

We can’t only pray or go to the people we want to see saved or changed for the glory of God. We must be willing to go to the ones whom we don’t like or even those that intimidate us.

When you look at the early church, they had every reason to reject Saul, but they took the risk of opening their lives and hearts to this man who became Paul. If they hadn’t, they could have rejected all the work that God had purposed through him. Paul was a huge blessing to the early church as well as the body of Christ for the last two thousand years.

Who is in your life that you need to open your heart to and allow God to accomplish His purpose in their lives as well as yours?

While sailing far away from Nineveh, the Lord sends out a great wind and Jonah eventually had to confess to people that it is because of him that the ship is in trouble. People were afraid of keeping Jonah, but they were also afraid of throwing the man of God into the water.

When we are in disobedience to the Lord, not only we cause trouble for ourselves, but we also put other people in vicarious position. People may be impressed by who we are and what we do; but, the question is, “Are we doing what the Lord is asking us to do, or are we doing what we want to do?”

You may be a great teacher of the Word of God or a great organizer, but your spouse has been asking you to spend more time with the family. He/she is saying to you, “Our own house needs better organization.”. Do you consider this unimportant because you’re helping a ministry or have an important corporate job? When your children are listening to your conversations, what do they make out it? Are your spouse’s words not that important to you because he/she is not in ministry or may not hear God well!!?  Most likely our spouses or our children would not dishonor us before others or complain about us, but the fact may remain that they are still not happy with the current conditions.

If we put the Lord first, He will show us how to prioritize our lives on this earth, so we can glorify His name and honor and value our loved ones and others. Ask your family if they feel valued and important to you. Or do they need to compete for your attention because you have other priorities?

In the previous devotional, I described the importance of dismantling the old self and letting go of strongholds that were lodged in our lives . Our thoughts are key factor as to whether we will live life  according to the old nature or the new one!!

That, however, is not the way of life you learned ²¹ when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. ²² You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³ to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:20-24 (NIV)

Change attitude of the mind

The above scripture tells that the “attitude of our mind” necessitates renewal. The new nature, (us) is like God. That’s the one we are called to feed and nurture, so it can grow strong. At the same time, we are commanded to starve and put to death the old nature!! The attitude of our mind is in need of renewal by thinking differently. The below scripture tells us how to think according to our new nature.

⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8 (NIV)

Be redemptive in your thinking

To be redemptive in our thinking will require an intentional, disciplined, alert, faith-filled attitude to think and live!! The world is full of sin and darkness. The above scripture is not telling us to be in denial of what is happening around us. As a matter of fact, it is telling us to think about those things that are true and right. Sometimes what is happening around us isn’t right. There are times that the truth is, something needs to change!! The scripture is not asking us to deny the reality of a situation. However, we are called to think about the situation with hope. With faith we can look at the situation and see it as God sees it, redeemable!! God is a redeeming God, so our new nature must change its attitude and think like Christ!!

Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. Ephesians 4:25(NIV)

Speaking truthfully is paramount

We can’t speak falsely in order to maintain relationships. The enemy will use falsehood as an open door to move us into deception and hypocrisy! What is interesting is the scripture tells us  we need to speak truthfully “for we are all members of one body”. Can you imagine lying or not telling the truth to one part of your body or trying to deceive it!? Our entire body must to be engaged with what is going on and be in one accord otherwise we could be diagnosed with some mental health problem! In the same manner, we can’t stay healthy as the body of Christ if we are living in falsehood with one another.

Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, Ephesians 4:26(NIV)

Anger must be dealt with immediately

When we’re angry, our flesh desires to continue to mull over the offense by stewing over it and rehashing the situation. And, if possible, tell somebody else about it, so they can justify our anger. Then we think about a plan of retaliation, but all of the above is the work of the flesh. This is when we must die to the flesh and say,” I am not giving the you room to have free reign. I’m not happy about this situation, but listening to you isn’t going to make this better. I can’t leave room for a pity party!! I belong to Christ”!!

And do not give the devil a foothold. Ephesians 4:27(NIV)

If we open the door to the enemy in any small way, he will reenter our lives. Those footholds eventually turn into strongholds!! That’s why it is so important to catch the little thought, attitude, falsehood, or anger in its infancy, aborting it quickly, so the enemy cannot lodge himself and start growing it into a stronghold!!

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Ephesians 4:29(NIV)

Use your speech to build

Just as other people’s words affect us, our words affect others. We don’t want to cause an offense or open a door for someone else to be baited by the enemy. If we have developed redemptive thinking mentioned earlier, then we will speak what is beneficial for others not what we want to unload on other people.

The word “unwholesome ” in King James is translated as “corrupt”

Corrupt (G4550): rotten, putrefied, corrupted by one and no longer fit for use, worn out of poor quality, bad, unfit for use, worthless

Our speech should be loving and nurturing as opposed to harsh and judgmental.  Wholesome conversations are good for other people. There is no rottenness to them. They are good quality. We’re helping people to be nurtured with something good and uncorrupt. When our speech is unwholesome, we are tempting the person’s old nature. We should be in the business of building people’s new nature.

How are you doing building your new nature?

What is your relationship with your old nature? Does it have free reign? Do you consider it an ally? Well,  the scripture has some serious things to say about this subject!!

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. ⁴ For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, ⁵ casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, ⁶ and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

2 Corinthians 10:3-6

We as people are continually faced with opposition from within and without. It’s a battle that we are faced with on a regular basis. What makes a believer’s life different is that now we must fight the battle in the Spirit realm rather than in the flesh. As a carnal person, we used to be in self-protection and self-preservation mode. For years we lived away from God, so we have developed an independence in taking care of #1 (us). We lived life as orphans fending for ourselves. This meant anything that looked threatening needed to be fought or avoided.

In the world, many times the battle is fought externally, meaning we think a person or a situation is a problem or a threat. However, in Christianity, we learn that in addition to the world system, we have a spiritual enemy who wants to steal, kill, and destroy the work of God in us. We also realize that we have a flesh (old nature) that needs to be crucified and restrained continually in order for us to live a spiritual life pleasing to God!!

When we are born again, God calls us a new creation, and He empowers us to live a righteous life. Now, our prespective on our struggles and opposition needs to change. Our starting point should be to go to God who allows us to fight the old nature in us. The strongholds that we allowed to be erected in our lives must be dismantled!

Hebrew definition of Stronghold: a castle, stronghold, fortress, fastness,

anything on which one relies

of the arguments and reasoning by which a disputant endeavors to fortify his opinion and defend it against his opponent

Our old nature relied on certain strongholds to be able to survive life and protect us from the world. Some people are very proud. Pride gives a fictitious confidence in order to overcome the enemy and make one feel bigger and stronger than others.

Some people rely on fear. These individuals, in the name of caution or carefulness can be very guarded in order not to show any vulnerability to others. That way others can’t hurt them or attack them easily.

Others rely on manipulation to gain unlawful entry and access into a person’s life for their own advantage. Some have strong reasoning skills, so they reason everything through their senses and make decisions that are just based on limited human understanding. There are many other strongholds that people rely on to succeed or survive life.

When Jesus enters the life of a person, He basically tells us that we must remove all those fortresses that we erected in our lives and instead trust Him. This is not an easy task!! Every part of our flesh wants to scream and protest because we are becoming disloyal to the very thing we were enslaved to for years!!! 

This is the war that needs to be fought and won by our new nature. As we let go of strongholds and our old thoughts, to the same degree we become available vessels useful for the Lord and immune from the temptations/manipulation of the enemy!!

I like the fact that the scripture tells us that we need to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. When you think about the natural world, a policeman holds a criminal or menace to society captive in order for the person not to cause damage to their surroundings. This person is held captive by the authority that sets rules of proper behavior for society. When we hold our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ, we basically are declaring that the little, “unlawful thought” is a menace to me and to the people around me. I am holding you captive to the authority of Christ, the one who sets the rules of right behavior and thought!!

Many of us don’t realize that the strongholds established in our lives started in the form of a thought, which led to an action or a decision!  Just because others are not aware of our thoughts yet, it doesn’t make it ok for us to entertain them. In this case our thoughts are not our best friends. They can’t just have free reign in our minds. They are familiar to us because we have entertained them for so long, but we can’t afford to be casual with them anymore.

Intimacy with the Lord is paramount in succeeding with dismantling of the old nature! It’s a vulnerable place to be but a freeing one!! We need to let Him minister to us with His love. The more we become confident in His protection and provision in our lives, the more faith we have to let go of our fortresses and strongholds and trust God for His protection. We are not at war with God. He is on our side to help us succeed in this!!!

How is your old nature doing today?

When Adam & Eve sinned, it separated them from God. As a result fear entered in, and insecurity took over! Man will live in an insecure state until they get in the right relationship with their heavenly Father and continue to depend on Him. Jesus came to redeem us from this state and reconcile us to the Father.  If we are going to be the people of God who represent Him well on the earth, we must confront insecurity, not make excuses for it by blaming others, and pursue living a secure life in Him!!

Secure people get their acceptance from the right source

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, ⁴ just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, took ⁵ having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. Ephesians 1:3-6

Man’s acceptance is flaky and inconsistent. If I don’t accept myself consistently, how can I be a good source of acceptance for somebody else? Or how can I expect someone else to provide that acceptance for me consistently? The scripture tells us that we are “accepted in the Beloved”. When we get a revelation of that, it will change our lives and focus from looking to the wrong places for acceptance!!

Sometimes, God uses people to help us believe God’s love and acceptance of us. They may mentor us for a season, but even those people should not become the foundation of our security. I look at those individuals as an umbilical cord in the mother’s womb. The baby is fed through the umbilical cord for a season while in the womb. The umbilical cord is not the source of life, but it is the conduit for life- sustaining nourishment. There will come a time when that baby has to take a life of his/her own outside the womb and learn to drink milk and use his/her own lungs. While the umbilical cord served a great purpose for season, it is not needed after the baby is born. Just as the baby still needs a mother, we will continue to need teachers, mentors, or Godly advisors. However, our faith needs to be established in our relationship to Jesus and no other person!!

We can approach God with confidence because of the work of Jesus on our behealf. Each of us must know who we are according to the word of God!! We need to learn to hear the voice of God for ourselves rather than depending on someone else hearing the Lord for us. There may be times that confirmation from another trusted person is necessary, but our security is established in our relationship with the Lord. We can’t depend on others for source of life, and security. The Lord has given us the Holy Spirit, so we can continually stay connected to Him!!

A secure Person is not easily shaken

Insecure people walk around with tainted glasses, and they interpret the world around them as if everything is directed towards them. In addition, if something happened that could be taken positively or negatively, they will go to the negative and think the worst. Insecure people have difficulty loving people and close their hearts quickly. They allow things to get to their hearts easily and as a result can have a hard time with forgiveness because the offense for an insecure person is always in an exaggerated form!

Surely he will never be shaken;
The righteous will be in everlasting remembrance.
⁷ He will not be afraid of evil tidings;
His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
⁸ His heart is established;
He will not be afraid,
Until he sees his desire upon his enemies.

⁹ He has dispersed abroad,
He has given to the poor;
His righteousness endures forever;
His horn will be exalted with honor. Psalm 112:6-9

Secure people are not afraid of man’s response or lack of response to them.  They can live life without fear, so as a result they can judge a situation with greater clarity and fairness.  They don’t use backbiting and gossip to defend their position but stay discreet in handling their differences with others. They are also less prone to reacting to a situation and don’t cause strife and insecurity in someone else’s heart. That allows a secure people to represent the Lord well on the earth, for they don’t perceive every problem as a personal attack against them!!

Do you consider yourself a secure person? If not, who/what pushes your buttons? Allow the Lord to show you and confront those issues!