Facing Consequences

“Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.” Jonah 1:4 (NIV)

God gives you the freedom to choose to obey His will or to reject His will. You can run from God or you can run to God. If you choose to disobey God’s will and embrace your own direction, God will allow you to go your own way. Thankfully, God will pursue you with His redeeming love.

Running from God activates the disciplinary process that can ultimately produce restoration. Running from God generates a natural flow of consequences that God will use to bring you back into fellowship with Himself (Prov 3:11-12).

Sometimes God will allow pain to come into your life to signal that something is out of balance. C.S. Lewis wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Pain is an effective tool that God may choose to use in order to pursue you.

Jonah was not a storm-chaser, but God used a storm to chase Jonah. Notice the progression of God’s pursuit of Jonah: “God sent a great wind (v.4), a violent storm (v.4b), the sea was getting rougher and rougher (v.11), the sea grew even wilder than before (v.13), and the raging sea (v.15).” Sometimes God has to turn up the volume in your life to get your undivided attention.

How is God pursuing you with His redeeming love? Is there anything out of balance in your life that dishonors God? God loves you and will pursue you to reconcile you and restore you.

Pursuing God,

Stephen Trammell
Executive Pastor
Follow me on twitter at: http://twitter.com/stephentrammell