JONAH: THE BLESSING OF REPENTANCE

I love how the Bible displays the failures of God’s people. It honestly makes me feel a little better about myself and my own shortcomings. It also reminds me that it is God and not ourselves that makes us qualified for His calling on our life. In the book of Jonah we find Jonah, a prophet of God who ran away from God’s calling on his life. His disobedience ultimately led to him getting swallowed by a whale. However, when we look at Jonah 2:1-10 we see Jonah coming to a place of repentance.

Jonah’s heart of repentance in Jonah 2 shows us what the heart of repentance is. Repentance means that we submit to God’s power and no longer take matters into our own hands. In chapter 1, Jonah took matters into his own hands and ran from God’s calling. Repentance also recognizes God’s discipline and conviction on our lives. A good father disciplines his children, and our God is a perfect father.

Repentance leads to a trust in God’s plan and ultimately causes us to yield to God’s will and calling on our life. Walking with God requires faith in God and faith is the recognition that we do not have it figured out and that we need God to lead us. One of the biggest blessings that comes from repentance is that God will redeem. God is a god that forgives and redeems those who come to Him with a heart of repentance.

Reflective Questions:

1.     Why is repentance so hard for us to practice?

2.     What is an area of your life where you need to seek forgiveness?

3.     How did Jonah display repentance in Jonah 2?

4. What blessing has come from the act of repentance?