A Grumpy Prophet and a Gracious God

We concluded our series on Jonah yesterday. I don't know about you but I felt like we had a great day of worship. Our singing, giving, praying, special music and message all led us in heartfelt worship of our gracious God.

While we have good reason to tag Jonah with the title of "Grumpy" we also need to remember that he at least aired his concerns with God in prayer. I am grateful the Bible says; "he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord" (Jonah 1:1-2). His prayer is a quote from Exodus 34:6-7, which also reminds us that this grumpy prophet had a working understanding of God's Word.

Here is the basis of his prayer from Exodus:

⁶ The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
⁷ keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation."

Jonah said: "You are a gracious God." I love that! I want to remind myself of that. We would all be wise to repeat that truth to ourselves frequently throughout the day.

One quote I left out of the message is:

"There is no place where you might be now, or where you might have been in the past, or where you might go in the future that will ever be beyond the reach of God's grace - nowhere." (Tullian Tchividjian, Surprised by Grace, p. 149)

May we always be surprised by grace,
Pastor Mike