The God of restoration

Salvation is from the Lord. Jonah 2:9

Jonah was running from God. Determined to do what he wanted to do. He knew what God wanted, but was stubbornly resisting God, even though it was causing him all kinds of problems. (been there, done that) So God turned up the heat. After spending three days in the belly of a great fish, swishing around in bile and gastric juices, in the dark, in the middle of the ocean, Jonah suddenly got religion. He remembered his God and prayed.
God is in the business of restoration. He could have allowed Jonah to drown when he was thrown off the ship. The fish could have chewed him up before swallowing. If I would have been God, I’m sure I would have terminated him for insubordination. But as Jonah said in chapter 4 verse 2, God is a “gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness…” God wants to use us Jonahs in spite of our rebellion and stubborn willfulness.
But as we learn from the lesson of Jonah, we shouldn’t presume upon the mercy of God and use our liberty as a license to sin. Rom 2:4 says, “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” Sometimes the kindness of God is a storm or a trial in our life to turn us in the direction He wants us to go.
Repentance is characterized by the response of the Ninevites to the message of coming judgment preached by Jonah. In chapter 3 verse 10 it says, “When God saw their DEEDS, that they TURNED from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity that He had declared…” Repentance means to turn. You’re going your way and then you turn 180 degrees and go the other way. It’s not just feeling sorry for your sin and then going right on your merry way, following the passions of your fleshly nature. It’s turning from your will and recognizing the authority of God’s will and His commission over your life, now that you are the property of God, having been bought out of bondage to the slavery of sin.
Jonah, this reluctant prophet, was instrumental in the greatest revival in Biblical history. An entire city of 600,000 people repented. God knew that the fruit was so ripe it was about to fall off the trees, He just needed someone to proclaim His word. How about you? Are you being faithful to the commission which you have been given to make disciples of the people in your neighborhood, your community, your village and ultimately throughout the world? Or are you being like Jonah, pursuing your will?