Day 19

You cannot run from God; you can only run into Him.

‘The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it”…But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.’ (JONAH 1:1-3a)

John Newton, a slave trader, was converted to Jesus Christ. Amazing Grace, that much loved hymn, was his personal story. He also wrote these wise words: ‘When people are right with God, they are apt to be hard on themselves and easy on other people. But when they are not right with God, they tend to be easy on themselves and hard on other people.’

Jonah was evidently not right with God. He cared more about his own comfort than about the people of Nineveh, to whom God sent him. When Jonah was on the run, God had one purpose: to bring him back on track. He cornered him and got his attention in the belly of the whale, which vomited him up in the direction of Nineveh!

We are free to disobey God, for He will never force His will on us. We are free to run in the opposite direction. However, when we do run away, we will find, as Jonah did, that God will track us down, and we will inevitably run right into Him. He will never, ever, let you go.

When we think we are running from God, He will turn up in the unexpected place.