THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME
TO JONAH...

...Jonah ran...
...The Lord sent a fish...
... Jonah prayed... Jonah obeyed... 
...The Lord had mercy on Nineveth...
...Jonah got angry with the Lord...
...Jonah prayed, Jonah wanted to die... 
...Jonah pouted...Jonah sat down...
...The Lord had mercy on Jonah...
...Jonah was glad, for awhile...
...Then, things didn't go his way...
...Jonah wanted to die, again...
The word of the Lord came AGAIN to Jonah... 



In the end, we don't know what happened to Jonah. But we can certainly identify with his story, because it's also our story, too. The word of the Lord comes to us. We run, and sometimes get stuck in a nightmare situation; then we pray. We promise if God just bails us out, we'll obey. We look pretty good for awhile, too. Eventually, we get angry with God when it seems He isn't doing what we think He should. We pray to the Lord, feel sorry for ourselves, and beg to die. We attempt to manipulate the Lord further by sitting down somewhere, just waiting for Him to come around to our way of thinking.  Even when things start heating up because we're sitting too long in the wrong spot, the Lord still provides for us. And, we're always VERY glad when He does. But if His provision is removed to teach us a much needed lesson, we despair. Then we want to die. Again.

Sound familiar?

 THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME.....
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