“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.” – Psalm 139: 7-8
There’s an old cliché that says, “There are no atheists in foxholes.” In other words, when the battle rages and the bullets fly, people tend to pray. There’s just something about realizing that you’re out of options and in need of divine intervention. Jonah experienced this kind of moment as the sailors tossed him overboard into the rough and stormy sea. You see, Jonah didn’t like the idea of preaching in the dangerous city of Nineveh, so he ran. That was Jonah’s first mistake. Thankfully, even when we run from God, God never stops pursuing us.
- When we run FROM God, we will continue running INTO God. As Jonah ran, he stumbled into one problem after another. Some of those problems impacted his own life, while other problems spilled over into the lives of others. (Think of all the sailors on the ship in the storm.) In running FROM God, God kept showing up.
- Sometimes it takes hitting rock bottom. It took Jonah being tossed into the sea and facing eminent death before he asked God for help. It didn’t have to be this way for Jonah, and it doesn’t have to be this way for us. However, for so many of us, it often takes hitting rock bottom before we turn back to God.
Are you running from God? What problems in your life and in the lives of others are the result of running? Thankfully, no matter how far or how fast we run, we can never out run God. His arms are too long for us to escape His reach. He is always ready and waiting to welcome us home.
