Jonah's Second Chance

Jonah was a terrible prophet, his first instinct when God call him to ministry was to flee into the opposite direction. Then God sent a storm at Jonah to prevent his progress. Yet that didn't change his heart, while on the ship he refused to pray even though the pagan men all around him were praying. Instead of turning his heart he decided death would be a better option and told the men to throw him overboard. But God is sovereign, he didn't let Jonah's attempt to destroy his plan succeed. Yet he also didn't infringe upon Jonah's freewill what God did was give him a second chance to turn his heart back to him. Although it took him three days Jonah finally did turn his heart and God graciously gave him the calling back to Nineveh. This time Jonah fulfilled the mission that God sent him and we see that he is amazingly successful the whole city of 120,000 people turned and repented to God. So what does God do? He gives them a second chance and had compassion upon them, just like he gave Jonah that second chance even when he wasn't expecting it and didn't deserve it. 

I think that often the greatest barrier preventing God working powerfully in this world is the agents that he works through, that is us. Only seven verses in Jonah are focused on Jonah's actual ministry, the other 40 verses are about God turning Jonah's heart. It is so easy to ignore or run away from God's calling but when we do we lose so much. Thanks be to God that he pursues us all the way to the cross. God help me stop running away from you.