This post is Day 13 in a series of studies about “Jonah”. I strongly suggest you begin with the introduction to this study, please click here to read it.

Feel free to comment below with your own thoughts about each verse and how you will be acting on each thought. Also, if you haven’t yet signed up to receive the notifications of new studies, you can do that today. (The form is at the bottom of the page).

Jonah – Day 13

We are surrounded in our daily lives by people who cling to idols. Yet unless we rely totally on the Lord God, we are forfeiting, as this verse tells us, some of the grace we could receive from our Heavenly Father who loves to give good gifts to His children.

Jonah 2:8

Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.

The Thought

What was it in Jonah’s situation that made him think about serving worthless idols? Was he thinking of the Babylonians who served idols and who the Lord was sending Jonah to warn? Was it that he thought that he had made an idol of himself in wanting to do what he desired instead of obeying the Lord? In effect that is what we all do in our disobedience, make idols of ourselves!

Once we have seen the powerful Lord of the Universe at work, as Jonah was experiencing, then we can definitely say that all idols are worthless.

We are surrounded in our daily lives by people who cling to idols, although maybe not in the form of a statue. But they are seriously hoping that their jobs or someone they know will provide for them in their time of need. Or they are relying on themselves, on their own strength to get them through a time of crisis.

Many of us “idolize” some form of media, listening intently to the news or to politicians telling us how bad things are and how we will all catch a murderous disease! Many of us too “idolize” certain preachers, prophets or teachers because we like what they say.

Unless we rely totally on the Lord God, we are forfeiting, as this verse tells us, some of the grace we could receive from our Heavenly Father who loves to give good gifts to His children.

Action

Ask the Lord today to show you if you have idols (things that take His place in your list of priorities) in your life.

Praise our Almighty God for His mercy and forgiveness. Praise Him that He is a jealous God, and the only god worth serving.

Pray for anyone you know who does not follow the Lord and makes an idol of themself.

For a full list of online studies available on this site, please click here.

If there is a subject you would like to see on this site, please use the comment section below or drop us an email (there’s a link at the very top of the page). We can’t promise to cover them all, and our studies are usually prepared a month or two in advance, so please be patient.

For a full list of physical resources available through this site, please click here.