meditations for an everyday relationship with Jesus

And He did not do it

Jonah 3:8 –10 Furthermore, both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. Each must turn from his evil ways and from the violence he is doing. Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His burning anger so that we will not perish.

Then God saw their actions-that they had turned from their evil ways -so God relented from the disaster He had threatened to do to them. And He did not do it.

God relented because the people in Nineveh repented, and Jonah was inconsolable! Why didn’t he want to see the Ninevites spared?

Have you ever wanted someone to get what they deserved, especially if they have come against you or are very different than you? C’mon, be honest. Haven’t you secretly wanted those who either broke the rules, or were not your kind, to get “whipped good and proper?”

We tend to adhere to the belief (as did Jonah) that as God’s favored we should be the exception to “the house rules;” that our closeness to God should give us an edge, a little something extra.

Anyone who repents has the edge. It may not seem fair, but it is just.

Do the right thing

Ephesians 6:5–8 Slaves, obey your human masters with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ. Don't work only while being watched, in order to please men, but as slaves of Christ, do God's will from your heart. Render service with a good attitude, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatever good each one does, slave or free, he will receive this back from the Lord.

We should do the right thing whether we are being observed or not. We should do the right thing whether we are rewarded or not. Doing the right thing should be its own reward. Yes, it should be ...

That all sounds morally correct, and certainly rational, but we do not operate that way in the flesh. In our daily lives we respond to reward and we also respond to punishment in the same ways (and for the same reasons) we respond to pleasure and pain. To do what we do for the joy … well, that is something else, altogether.

It is a paradigm shift to suggest that we might do something for its own sake rather than for a wage or some other incentive. Yet, Christ calls us to the ultimate paradigm shift: be slaves and be joyful for His sake!