One thing that happens very often when my whole family is riding together in the car is we like to talk a lot. Something that is certain to happen every time is my boys have a bad habit of interrupting in a conversation when they want to get their words in. It can really get under your skin. Most parents understand what I am talking about.
However, did you know that God interrupts our lives on a daily basis? Some of us would like to avoid some of those interruptions, while others are praying everyday for God to intervene in their life. The reality is that God is with us and interrupting our lives on a daily basis. Sometimes it is through things we see, or people we do life with, other times it is through circumstances. God’s purpose for our lives is one thing: to bring Him (God) glory. In 1 Corinthians 10:31 it says, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” In order to do that, God has to interrupt our lives to see that bigger picture. Unfortunately for most of us, we have a hard time seeing that big picture because we view it from our own perspective.
The Bible is filled with several examples of this, but the one I would like to bring our attention to is the story of Jonah. Jonah was a prophet to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. He was a Godly man who listen for God’s voice and then declared that message to His people. During this time, Israel was in a good spot. They were again enjoying prosperity not seen since the time of Solomon. This would also be true for Jonah. He was probably well liked, respected and financially secure.
However, God interrupted his life! It begins in Jonah 1:1 when it says, “ The word of the Lord came to Jonah.” God interrupted Jonah’s comfortable life with a task for him. God asked Jonah to go to Nineveh and speak his message to them. God had called Jonah to take His message of salvation to an enemy of Israel. As most of us know Jonah decides that he would rather not follow God and he runs as far as he can. It says in Jonah 1:3 that “he rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.”
How many times has God interrupted your life with something that doesn’t fit your plans? It will happen to all of us at sometime in our life. He may ask you to share the Gospel with someone you dislike, or he could interrupt your health, your family, or your career. I cannot think of a worse place to be on the earth than “fleeing the presence of the Lord.”
Most of us know the rest of the story. Jonah’s plan doesn’t work out too well for him. God’s desire is to make much of himself. The gift for us is that He wants to use us to do that. So has God interrupted your life in some way? Have you ignored his voice? Have you fled from his assignment? Someone’s life might be counting on you obeying God’s interruption.
Read this following passage and meditate on it and ask yourself do you relate with the Jonah we see in Jonah Chapter 1? Or do you relate with these two brothers?
Matthew 4:18-22
18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
-Marty Burgess
College Pastor, BCC