GOD'S TONIC

THE OTHER DAY I read again about using “A-C-T-S” as a guideline for prayer:

A for ADORATION—a means of reminding myself who God is and who I’m not;
C for CONTRITION—which I think of as confession with a desire for improvement and the acceptance of forgiveness;
T for THANKSGIVING—for me that’s the ever faithful gratitude attitude;
S for SUPPLICATION—meaning I don’t know what Your plan is, Lord, but I’d like to tell you mine.

I SEEM TO HAVE LESS DIFFICULTY with adoration, thanksgiving, and supplication than I do with contrition. I just can’t seem to put aside my failures. I seem to need to punish myself for what I’ve done that I wish I hadn’t and for what I haven’t done that I wish I had.

GIVEN WHAT I’VE READ in the New Testament about the promise of absolute forgiveness, these failings seem far more important to me than they are to God.

I AM REMINDED of the story about a man who heard God’s voice.
“How do I know you’re God?” the man asked.
“Ask me a question only I would know the answer to.”
“Okay. Tell me how I sinned day before yesterday,” the man said.
God replied, “I don’t remember.”

THAT’S HOW IT IS. God forgives me. He moves on and I waste time cycling back through the sin. Do I doubt the promises?

HOW WOULD MY LIFE CHANGE if I dared to live it forgiven?

I THINK I KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT. I waste a lot of energy to “unforgiveness.” I waste a lot of energy refusing His tonic. Confession is like putting the garbage out to be collected. All I have to do is hand it over. Once I do, I’m lighter. I have more energy. I’m ready for His plan and eager to be a part of it.

AND I HAVE PEACE.

THAT ALONE is worth striving a little harder for.

You’re blessed. Be a blessing!

FORGET THE WHALE.

THE OTHER DAY I met a little boy named Jonah. He was a sweet child, which made me question his parents’ biblical scholarship. (Perhaps they’d just been caught up in the recent “J” fever that seems to have infected young parents lately and they ran out of options.) Then, out of the blue, my husband asked me about the significance of Nineveh.

BECAUSE OF THAT, I feel the nudge to talk about Jonah.

GOD WANTED JONAH to go to Nineveh and warn the inhabitants about what He had planned for them and their evil ways. It wasn’t going to be pretty.

NOW NINEVAH WAS THE CAPITAL OF ASSYRIA, and Assyrians were the mortal enemy of the people Jonah came from. Jonah decided he’d rather risk a sea journey (most desert people were terrified of the ocean) than warn a people he loathed and sincerely hoped God would wipe off the face of the earth.

THIS IS WHERE THE FISH INCIDENT COMES IN. Usually everything stops here while a heated discussion about the fish ensues. But, there’s something much more important to the story.

WHEN JONAH REACHED DRY LAND, he’d learned his lesson. He headed for Ninevah. It was such a huge city, it took him three days of preaching to cross it.

TO HIS SURPRISE, the Assyrians listened to him. They believed his message. Even the king heard it. They fasted; they sat in the dirt; they wore burlap. They all REPENTED and became people of faith.

AND GOD CHANGED HIS MIND about punishing them. He heard their prayers and spared them.

JONAH WAS FURIOUS! Why? Because God is merciful; abounding in love and grace; slow to anger; quick to forgive. And those rotten Assyrians didn’t deserve that. They deserved the calamity previously planned. That was what Jonah endorsed.

HE STOMPED OUT TO THE DESERT to sulk. God had not acted according to the plan.

AS FOR ME, I’m glad those old Assyrians didn’t get what they deserved.

I’M GLAD GOD CHANGED HIS MIND . . . because it gives me hope that I can be forgiven and spared as well.

You’re blessed. Be a blessing!