Treasure of Learning just like Jonah did!

For my birthday an old friend (longtime not old) wrote me a note that said "Happy birthday to the gal who taught me to tie my shoes in kindergarten." Did I really show her how to tie her shoes in Kindergarten?? I can believe I did...sounds just like me !! I was one of the oldest and I am sure I took it upon myself to show the rest how to do what I could already do !! I was sure they needed to learn how and evidently no one else was teaching them...or they weren't listening and learning. Even in Kindergarten, I was already already a Miss Fix-it . And it was always to be helpful.....never to be pushy or bossy....nooooooo, never !!

So, here I am some 50+ years later and I still think I can fix things....for others and for me !!And it is still to be helpful not pushy or bossy...or so I THINK ! I am quite sure God did not go on a vacation and ask me to fill in for Him. In fact I doubt if He even mentioned to me that my services were needed or so in demand ! He is mighty God, creator of the universe and world....I think He can function just fine without my help.......I am not sure my friends can........ but if God be for them, then what can stand against them ??

So this is something the Lord is talking to me about and working on with me !

Letting God be God and do His job....He is really good at it !! Something Jonah seeminly forgot in his running away to Tarshish....and then his pouting about how the Lord was going to be merciful and save the people of Ninevah. A wicked people who needed to learn a lesson or two on how to honor and obey God. And Jonah was just the one to show them...after all he was a prophet and a good one and obeying God was a priority ....or was it.....or is it??  But it became one, finally, as Jonah realized the necessity of doing things God's way. He could agree with David in Psalm 119:71 & 75  "It is  good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. I know, LORD, that your laws are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me."  The discipline God allowed was not meant to punish Jonah but to prepare him for doing things God's way.....accepting and surrendering to God's discipline was the wise thing to do ! Jonah's heart needed a realignment* to be able to handle his reassignment...or should I say his willingness to complete his original assignment !! So, how is this applicable to me.....do I see a parallel to my life and my " I did it my way" theme song. I think I just might.

 My devotional for today said...paraphrased......Seek my face and your will find my presence and my peace...BUT to receive it, you must change your grasping controlling stance to one of openess and trust. The most persistent choice you face is whether to trust me ......Psalm 46:1-2 "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains (or JONAH) fall into the heart of the sea"

What a traceable, trustable treasure…. to be able to leave it up to God…..after all........ He is GOD!


* Jonah pg 64~ by Priscila Shirer

The Treasure of Doing Things God's Way!

I thought I would share with you all, some of the interesting truths from a book I am reading by Priscilla Shirer called "Jonah, Navigating a Life Interrupted."

You can’t escape life’s interruptions…they shock us and shake us and compel us to change. Yet what you see as an interruption may in reality be an invitation from God himself to a life much bigger than you ever imagined !! God’s plan IS a Divine intervention .…where our balking at God’s plan is an indication of the importance we place on our wants and makes it an interruption. We often feel like Jonah felt about God’s Plan!~~frustrated. The importance we place on our plans, often causes us to frown when the Lord sends new assignments our way.

Would it have made a difference if Jonah could have seen his life laid out in the 4 chapters of Jonah and if he could have seen that this interruption ( which he fled to Tarsus to avoid ) was really an invitation to participate in one of the more supernatural events in the Old Testament…Just that change in his viewing perspective would have made all the difference in his life ….as it does in ours !

It is easier to say that God and His plans are in a place of significance in our lives than to live like they are. The prophet, Jonah needed a fresh view of God and His plan …one he would get the hard way! May we take a page from Jonah’s life and rework our view early on. And may we come to realize that yielding to God is the best decision we can make.  It is such a Traceable, Trustable Treasure.

Prov 3:5-6  Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

Psalm 81:13-14a  “If my people would only listen to me, if Israel would only follow my ways, how quickly I would subdue their enemies ...

Psalm 145:17 The LORD is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does.