"The Fish's Belly"

"So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey." Jonah 3:3

The first time God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, Jonah disobeyed and ran in the opposite direction. But later Jonah obeyed and did what God told him to do in the first place. Between the first time God told Jonah to go and the second time, Jonah found himself in the midst of a storm and in the belly of a big fish. Just think, if Jonah had obeyed the first time he could have saved himself a lot of grief, trouble and pain.

We tend to be like Jonah at times. The Lord will give us instructions and we "run" from it. While we are "running" we go through our own problems that are attached to the disobedience. If only we would learn to just obey the first time, we too could save ourselves from going through some of the things we go through because of disobedience. Disobedience will always take us to a "fish's belly"- a place of darkness, a place where there is no peace, no rest, confusion, distress, frustration, guilt, condemnation, and the list goes on.

Are you running from the command of the Lord this morning? Has He instructed you to go in a specific direction yet you are running in another? Are you ignoring Him altogether and going in your own direction, following your own plan? Are you putting off doing what He has told you to do? Perhaps that explains why you are going through some of what you are going through-- the "fish's belly"?

Have a great day. We could save ourselves a lot of pain and grief if we would just obey the Lord the first time.

For further reading:
1 Samuel 15:22
Romans 8:1
Hebrews 2:1-3