My Ninevah

I was asked to give a short devotional about the ministries I've been involved in since being a member of our local congregation. I don't like to talk about myself, but my wife and ministry partner urged me to share the things we've been involved in over the past two years.

While we have done quite a few things, I almost always have the feeling that I come to them in a sort of Jonah-ish way. That is to say that many things I've done, I've initially had little enthusiasm for, but have done because there was a need and no one else in sight to do it. So in my own Jonah way, I've come to it out of duty more than wowsa. Just saying.

One of the men at the meeting reminded me of a little known (to me) scripture “What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. (‭Matthew‬ ‭21‬:‭28-31‬ ESV)

Not to justify myself, but I can identify with sometimes reluctant servants who do the right thing even though they didn't want to initially. Well, there's my confession.

God only wanted Jonah to give an eight word message to Ninevah, not a spectacular message, nor a splendid speaker. But when combined with the power of The Holy Spirit, a whole city was saved. Eight words.

The up shot of all this is that God puts things in front of us (Ninevahs) that He wants us to do. Sometimes as simple as saying eight words, or sharing truth with all the world (Matthew 28 comes to mind). Even if we don't want to do it, we should do it and leave the results to God.