"25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it."
Last week at MERGE Lunch we spent more time on taking risks. Everyone comes from a slightly different viewpoint, whether you are taking risks all the time, not sure if you are taking the right risks, don't know which one to take, or you feel spot on, there is much to learn. We looked at the text of Jonah and discovered all the risks God was asking him to take. There were some interesting findings in our study:
- God is good. He is good at giving direction and command.
- Even when Jonah ran in the opposite direction of God's direction and command, God used it for His purpose of bringing more people to Him. In this case, a boat load of people were saved.
- When Jonah actually obeyed God, a whole city or nation was saved.
- God can still get to His purposes through our disobedience.
- God is patient and He is always looking to save.
Some of my thoughts post MERGE:
Jonah was a prophet. The role of a prophet is to be a
spokesperson for God. The prophet admonishes, warns, directs,
encourages, intercedes, teaches and counsels. He brings the word
of God to the people of God and calls the people to respond. Jonah forgot who He was and His purpose. God sending him to Nineveh to speak out against their wickedness, was His purpose. He sent Jonah, the prophet, to do prophet stuff. God purposes advance in spite of Jonah's agenda but Jonah's joy is robbed because He let his personal prejudice and judgment fall on the people of Nineveh.
What does all this mean for our work life?
- I believe we all want to take calculated risks. God wants to give us direction, the risk should diminish if we know we are in the center of His will. Doesn't mean it will be less challenging or come without costs, but we can rest in that God works all things to our good. (Paraphrase of Romans 8:28)
- God is in our work and we can trust Him. He knows our situation better than we do.
- If we are going to understand what God is directing us to do, we have to build relationship with Him. If we don't understand how or when we are to get out of the boat, maybe we need more time with Him.
- We need to fully understand who we are? What is our purpose? Then we will always have a plumb line to measure the risk, to measure the decision, to measure the direction. Spend some time on this and ask God to help you understand your truest self and purpose.
- Lastly, be willing at all times, to lay down our own purposes and agenda. God's purposes for us our greater and better and definitely bring more joy.
Join us next month, September 10th, for MERGING Our Lives For The Sake Of Others.
