Help support the vision of Woodland Hills Community Church!

Help support the vision of Woodland Hills Community Church!
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Friday, January 23

Today’s Readings: Psalm 88; Jonah 1:17-2:10; John 3:16-21; 1 Corinthians 3:18-23; Psalm 130

As I’ve alluded to in my blog on more than one occasion, Jonah is one of my favorite books in the Bible. I love it for several reasons. I love it because it is so easy to relate to. I also love it because it has many challenging lessons with which we can wrestle. Today’s reading from Jonah is a good example of this. You see lots of us have very specific ideas about how things are supposed to unfold when we cry out for help. If we cry out for help when we are out of work, for instance, we are supposed to find a job in our field that pays the wages we expect. If we are having relationship problems and cry out for help, we are supposed to find reconciliation that takes the relationship back to the way it used to be. If we cry out for help when we are fighting an injury or illness, we expect to be restored to our previous condition. Jonah reminds us that our requests aren’t always met in exactly the way we would like them to be. When Jonah was tossed off the ship and into the turbulent water, for example, he cried out for deliverance from the waters. And where did he end up? In the belly of a fish. And when Jonah cried out to God from the belly of the fish for deliverance from the fish, where did he end up? On the shore - with a command to head directly to the dreaded city of Nineveh. The lesson for us today is to be honest with ourselves when we find ourselves crying out for assistance. We ought to ask ourselves, “What do I really want? Do I truly want help, or do I really want a specific outcome?” If we truly say we want help, we need to make sure we are open to receiving it on terms other than our own. Til next time…

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