Relinquish

Jonah 3:10 (New International Version) 10 When God saw what they did and how they turned (relinquished) from their evil ways; he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.


Dear Friend,

I want to tell you this story about a young male adult. This man had an assignment to do and knew he should do it, but did not want to. So instead of doing the job he starts to make plans to runaway and go to a place where he thinks he can get away. As he is going to the place where he thinks is a better place for him there is trouble all around him. On his journey there is a great storm and his life is in danger. He gets with a crowd that questions who he is and they don’t except him at all and threaten to kill him. Their attempt to kill him is not successful. This attempt on his life causes him to evaluate the past years of his life and question whether he was going in the right direction. But things would be getting tough, so he tries to go another way. Upon realizing he was to get out of doing what he was called to do, he needed to turn around and make it right.

Stop!

Is this story familiar to you? It’s the story of Jonah and the fish. Can you identify with Jonah? Have you had things to do that are hard and procrastinate doing them? When you are stuck and things aren’t going right, do you realize that you know the way to go but just don’t want to listen? Did you ever think you are not cooperating? That is where your storms in life are coming from? Pride, stubbornness, not listening is all part of human weaknesses that we have and we need to allow God to change in us. The cool thing about Jonah is he finally obeyed and that obedience allowed him to go to Ninevah and ask the people to repent or turn from their ways. With God’s help he saved many people from doom. I realize that the people listened after one warning and made changes immediately and that God forgave them. Jonah was the lucky one because if you study other prophets they warned on and on for years and the Israelites never turned from their sin. Turning from sin and making changes doesn’t always happen that quickly, but the true character of God shined. God-slow to anger, compassionate and abounding in love.
Experiencing God’s forgiveness is so amazing! Our job is to just relinquish our lives to God.

Relinquish= give up, surrender, renounce, resign
What do you need to relinquish today?
Let’s pray: Thank you for helping me to understand my stubborn ways. Thank you for not bringing destruction on me but abounding love. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Love from Above,
Elaine