Respond Differently

The end of Jonah 3 feels like it should be the end of Jonah’s entire story. After all, Jonah has gone to Nineveh after finally listening to God’s command, and he experienced God's grace in his life in spite of his disobedience. In addition, the people of Nineveh experienced God giving them a second chance, and God doesn't bring upon them the destruction he had threatened. But that’s not the end, because Jonah is not happy about those in Nineveh getting to experience God’s grace firsthand. Jonah wants this forgiveness and grace for himself, but not for these people.

However, we want the grace of God to be something that would overflow out of us. We need to completely understand the grace we've received, and allow ourselves to be filled with that. We didn't deserve it from God and people may not deserve it from us, but it should be what marks us and makes us distinctive as Christ followers. After all, you didn't deserve it and you didn't earn it, but God gave it freely to you, and now he’s called you to do the same for others. We pray that God would let us experience his grace fully, so it would overflow out of us to the people around us and be a powerful testimony to this world. 

DISCUSSION/REFLECTION QUESTION: Can you recall a time in your life when you thought the story was over on an event or incident, but you still struggled with residual bitterness or resentment? How did you (or can you) overcome this?