Jonah 4:2 AMPC

“And he prayed to the Lord and said, I pray You, O Lord, is not this just what I said when I was still in my country? That is why I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and [when sinners turn to You and meet Your conditions] You revoke the [sentence of] evil against them.”

Jonah in his story was told to go to Nineveh to deliver a word to the people to repent but instead, he decided to go against God and flee to another place. God’s grace and mercy were upon the people of Nineveh but God’s servant didn’t respond correctly to the position he was called to stand in. Later on, God puts things into perspective of how Jonah could feel more mournful for a plant more than the people he was called to speak to. God had mercy. He had a plan to deliver it, yet the vehicle in which He intended to use for its delivery was bound up in the heart of a person who had his own personal intentions…… (he wanted justice to be done when & how he wanted it)

Jonah hindered God’s plan willingly & knowingly.

Jonah’s response was in short “I didn’t go because I knew they would be forgiven”

Say Whaat…….so you knew where God stood on the matter and purposely decided to withhold the mercy and grace that God had appointed to the people of Nineveh?

It was Ninevah’s appointed time to be told this word but God’s servant put his hands on it and attempted to repurpose what was already set up as a form of protection, transformation, a time of repentance…… a God encounter for them.

I say all this to say “Don’t be like Jonah”, where you have more mercy on things that are less, than the people God treasures. The people of Nineveh were abounding in sin (swimming deep in it) but God still looked upon them and extended His hand none the less.

2 Peter 3:9 AMPC
“The Lord does not delay and is not tardy or slow about what He promises, according to some people’s conception of slowness, but He is long-suffering (extraordinarily patient) toward you, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance.”

I don’t know about ya’ll but my patience runs thin but, even when this happens, I am consistently given yet another dose of enduring what I want to be resolved right now but I too must wait patiently.

Hard truth to swallow

People can only repent when they have a real understanding of what they’re repenting for, outside of that it’s like an empty apology, it’s not the same. The act of repentance is the turning away from the sin being done but that’s a whole other topic altogether…