This post is Day 25 in a series of studies about “Jonah”. I strongly suggest you begin with the introduction to this study, please click here to read it.

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Jonah – Day 25

There are often times when we pray for something and God does not seem to hear. My own experience of unanswered prayer was when I had a gall bladder problem. But I am so glad those prayers were not answered. The experiences I had then were worth all the suffering!

Jonah 4:5

Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city.

The Thought

Imagine this sad picture: Jonah still had not forgiven God for being merciful, and he was sitting alone to watch what God would do and how things in Nineveh would evolve. We have no idea how far Jonah had walked to get outside the city and find a place where he would be able to see what happened. But I can imagine him grumbling to himself every step of the way, feeling that he needed a career change because being a prophet was no longer right for him!!

Was Jonah secretly hoping to see fire and brimstone fall on Nineveh as they had done on Sodom and Gomorrah? Would he really have preferred the destruction of Nineveh instead of the saving grace of the Lord? Can you imagine Jonah building the shelter and grumbling silently at God continually?

He wouldn’t want to talk to anyone. He was just miserable with himself and with God and was secretly enjoying that feeling!! I imagine that God was laughing at this spoilt child behaviour!

There are often times when we pray for something and God doesn’t seem to hear. My own experience of unanswered prayer was when I had a gall bladder problem. But today I can tell you that I am so glad those prayers weren’t answered. The experiences with the Lion of Judah were worth all the suffering!! (You can read about them in Transported by The Lion of Judah available here.)

Action

Praise God that He laughs at our grumbles and does what He plans to do in spite of our complaints.

Pray and ask forgiveness if there have been times when you have not liked what God was doing, and you have thought He should be listening to your advice.

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