Jonah

Been going through Jonah at church the past month. Today I read Jonah 4:5-11

Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city.
So the Lord God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort.
And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. But God appointed a worn when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered.
When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying " Death is better to me than life."
Then God said to Jonah, " Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?" And he said " I have good reason to be angry, even to death."
Then the Lord said, " You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight.
"Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?"


Jonah was waiting for the Lord to do something to the city of Nineveh. He had just gone and told them in the previous chapter that the Lord was going to cast his anger on them because of their wicked way of life. But in chapter 3:10 it states, that He (God) did not do it. The Lord answered the cry out of the city and He forgave them. Yet, there Jonah sits in the next chapter waiting to see what the almighty God was going to do to them.

Is there ever a time that we sit and watch and wonder what is going to happen to the person who is living in darkness or who has done wicked against you. I feel like I do this with my spouse sometimes. I recognize his faults and wonder what kind of punishment should be played out ( maybe I will just ignore him for a few hours, eat some ice cream, go spend some money) whatever it may be is not how we should respond. God would say forgiveness is key. That is easy to write but very hard to do. Especially when people repent, we should be Christ like and model the grace the Lord has for us when we repent to Him. We should be this example on earth for our chidren, our husbands; but most importantly remember to daily repent to our God.

None of us are perfect and repentness doesn't just come that one time you give your life to the Lord and accept Him as your Savior. Repentness is continuous- because we all are sinners. Recognize His grace upon you when you have done something sinful and ask for repentness; and be sure your responding as the Lord does to you toward others in your life.