Risky Decisions
Jonah 1:3-12
We may do crazy things when we're caught up in stormy circumstances resulting from our own "out of control" behavior. We take risks that can have terrible consequences, but find that we've lost the power to choose otherwise.
Jonah made a risky decision that seems crazy by any definition! Let's try to learn something from his experience. Jonah was running away from God. He boarded a ship going the opposite direction from where God told him to go. "But the LORD hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart." The sailors identified Jonah as the cause of the storm. "[Jonah] had already told them he was running away from the LORD. 'Oh, why did you do it?' they groaned. . . ._'What should we do to you to stop this storm?' 'Throw me into the sea,' Jonah said, 'and it will become calm again.' . . . Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once!" (Jonah 1:4, 10-12, 15).
When we follow our own ways, God may allow us to get caught up in a "storm." He often does this to help us face the insanity of the risks we take. Jonah was rescued and taken back to where God had intended him to go. God can rescue us out of our personal storms as well. He can take us back to a place where the available choices aren't life threatening or dangerous.
Even when we go our own way, God is there with us, ready to restore us.
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