Throw Back Sunday!
I rolled into church late again saints! Why am I always late!? Anywho, that is not the subject at hand, I just wanted to explain why I missed testimony service. It was because I was late.
But I caught the tale end where my little sister was giving her testimony about how God worked everything out for her. She was going through, but now she made it through. She had the evidence showing in her life, she was working, finishing her first semester back in school with all A's and just really doing well. She said that she could not miss 5th Sunday THROW BACK TESTIMONY SERVICE! I am so dense that I was like (to myself) Oh is that what we do every 5th Sunday?!
5th Sunday-Testimony Service. I have a testimony, I do, I just don’t have the courage to stand up in front of people at church and tell the whole congregation about my successes in the Lord before it has come to pass. I know that God will bless me with income to help my family, I know that God will help me build a business from scratch, I know that God will bring me through the trials that I am going through, this I know. But who will believe my testimony of all the great things that have happened to me if it hasn’t actually happened yet? I can see it, but convincing other people to see it, how do I do that? But God told me that it is not my job. So, I write. This will be the evidence that I have known the great things that God had in store for me before they happened.
He is preparing me, just like he is preparing you.
Do you find yourself trying to explain to people what God has called you to do?
We don’t have to worry about that. What God told you to do is for you to do, regardless if anyone else knows or understands it. We just have to be obedient to what God has told us to do.
When the time is right, your life will show it, and your testimony will be strong to help other people. People will understand and know what it means to be GOD PREPARED.
We are specifically chosen to do a work for the Lord. We are called to a purpose for the Lord. If you haven't heard your calling yet, it is just because God is preparing you to hear his voice. You have to know him in order to successfully answer his call. . .
But it is Sunday, so let us talk about what the preacher talked about.
So what did the preacher preach about today? It was a good message out of the book of Jonah. The gist of the message was:
Be obedient to the will of God the first time, or he will remind you who he is.
It wasn’t really a wrath of God message but it was a message showing how God operates. It was a message to demonstrate the way we think is not the way that God thinks. God is strategic, well planned out. He is the most sophisticated chess player in the game of life because he sees every move an infinite number of times ahead of you. Jonah’s story is a story about how our ways are not God’s way. Our thoughts are not God's thoughts. Our understandings are not God's understandings.
Instead, we are God's handiwork, and he is preparing us for our purpose. You don't have to understand it, people don't have to understand it. God understands and he knows exactly what you need to do to get to where he needs you to go.
Jonah was confused on this. Jonah had made up in his mind that he knew what was best for him to do. He did not listen to the call of the Lord.
The preacher asked:
“Do you have the Jonah Syndrome?”
We all have the Jonah syndrome. Why? Because it is easier for us to make excuses rather than to do something we don't want to do.
Real quick if you are not familiar with the story of Jonah . . . He was a prophet that was told by the Holy Spirit to go to Nineveh and preach to the people there. He was to tell them to change their mind from their evil ways and follow the ways of the Lord. But Jonah didn’t want to do this because he didn’t like these people. He thought they were all sinners who were not deserving of God’s grace, or a second chance to receive God’s blessings. So what did Jonah try to do? He tried to run away. He got on a ship thinking that he was going to get away from his calling. He chose not to listen to the voice of the Lord.
Long story short: He didn’t get away, he caused God to create a storm, he got tossed overboard in the water, and then swallowed by a great fish. He stayed in the belly of that fish for three days and three nights until he learned his lesson. What was the lesson?
It is better to answer the call of the Lord then to feel the consequence of your disobedience.
So I ask you again? Do you have the Jonah syndrome?
An unfulfilled life is a life not lived in God's purpose. An unfulfilled life is a life being lived in the consequences of disobedience.
There is something that God has called you to do. Do not run away from it. If it were easy, it wouldn’t shape you into the person you need to become in order to fulfill your purpose. It has to be hard, sometimes it has to be something that you don’t want to do. This is how we grow.
God is good and has your best interest at heart. He also has called you to do a work that will help other people. Won’t you answer the call?
We need to start answering God everyday with a, “Yes Lord, I will.”
The preacher made some other great key points, but I believe this was the gist. Be obedient to God. Easy, simple, to the point. Learn this and you are well on your way to find your purpose.
Also remember, if God called you to it, then you are prepared to do it!
God Bless You Always
-Tamorra
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