1. Evangelism is really God’s work, my job is care for the lost and obedience. In Jonah 3:5 the Ninevites amazingly repented after such a heartless sermon from Jonah.
2. God will separate us from idols, for He cares for our holiness, but it is so much easier if we willingly search our own hearts. Jonah 1:15-17.
3. If I find myself angry at God it is time to look with my own heart for something is wrong. Jonah 4:1-4

Lord, thank You for showing me how worthless and destructive idolatry is. It has been painful to see my own wretched heart but I can also see how I have come closer to You through it. I have experienced Your wonderful grace! I pray for myself and for each woman on this blog that we may continue to grow in our freedom. Help us to see idols as they creep into our hearts and run to You. Thank You for what I have learned in this week’s sermon about how to forgive. Help me to apply it to my own heart. I fear to ask this except that I know my own need and I know You are compassionate toward me. I love You LORD and ask all of these things in Jesus’ name. Amen

“But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish” (Jonah 1:3)

This is where it all began – “the running man” – we find our true identity only with God, but when we run the other way, trying to build our identity without God, this is the very essence of sin.

“I said, I have been banished from Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple” (Jonah 2:4)

I can run so far and sin so badly, that my feeling tell me I can’t come back to God – yet I must look to the Cross, the love that God has for me that He would die for me and makes it possible for me to be reconciled and forgiven.

“Salvation comes from the Lord” (Jonah 2:9)

This is living out the gospel – salvation is the moment of new birth but it doesn’t stop there – each and every besetting sin or trial or area where I need to grow needs to be given over to the Lord and He is my salvation in the midst of it.

Lord, I pray that you will sink these truths deep into my heart and not let me forget them. Help me to see when I am running from You and running to my idols to get my identity. Bind me with Your cords of love; they may stretch and let me go my own way but only so far – then open my eyes that I may come to my senses and return to You. I thank You that I am never banished from Your sight. Help me to live in the light and the truth that You are my Salvation for everything.

When I found the picture of the woman climbing up the rocks, reaching for God’s hand, in my mind it tied in beautifully with Rebecca’s picture of the woman coming out of the cleft. God calls us to go higher – but we are on the rocky trail and sometimes the climb is hard, but He is there to help us – we have to reach for His hand through prayer and through reading His Word. Also, His hand is reaching down to us.

That my fear about many things in my life shows my idolatry; yes, because the fear of losing the things I depend on shows that they are idols in my life. Mostly the fear is related to losing family, either through death or by them moving away. For some reason, all of my life I’ve needed people around me to feel safe, loved, and secure. I don’t mean that I can’t tolerate being physically alone, say, at home during the day when the kids are at school. But I know they will be home eventually. I believe that if I could really grasp and be secure that God loves me; if that final penny would drop, it would change my life.

11. Applying this to my current trials, sometimes I feel very spiritually alone and I’m sending off a second son to college. My life is changing, my role is changing. I will be focused at home now on raising my daughter and the dynamics of our home will be different. Of course, my son will return for visits and holidays and next summer, but I already feel the loneliness of missing him. My mom’s declining health scares me, and I am so fearful because she doesn’t know the Lord. Keller used the example from the Lord of the Rings movie, where the hobbit is scared to death on the battlefield until he looks over and sees another fighting with him. It gives him courage. I need to speak that truth to my soul, that I have One who is with me, who died for me, and will not leave me alone and who loves the people that I love, too.

I also want to thank you Diane for reading my comments and those of others so carefully and so often providing rich encouragement, Thank you!

Missing you Elizabeth & Renee

Goodnight to you sisters, I have had a brutal last couple of days, I have the next two off and I am mighty grateful!