What bothers you most about the current situation? I have found the Lord challenging me about my priorities.
OK, let’s come clean: the gardeners among you will have noticed that we had some unusually late frosts in mid-May which weren’t good for some of the plants in our garden (and probably not for yours either) … which, I have to confess, bothered me greatly.
The Lord brought to mind Jonah 3-4. If you aren’t familiar with it, it would be good to read it at this point, but here is a summary: the Lord sent Jonah (for a second time) to preach in Nineveh; the people repented. Jonah was angry – the people of Nineveh were a horrible lot and had been appallingly cruel to Jonah’s people, he didn’t want them to be saved. God caused a plant to grow and provide Jonah with shade, which he greatly appreciated … and then God caused it to die. Jonah got really angry about the death of the plant. Time for the LORD to apply the lesson (Jonah 4v9-11) …
9 But God said to Jonah, ‘Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?’
‘It is,’ he said. ‘And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.’
10 But the LORD said, ‘You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left – and also many animals?’
Ouch! OK, I think you can work out the lesson the Lord was teaching me …! But what about you?
We should be much more concerned about those who are in serious danger of losing their souls eternally, than we are about us losing things that have made our life more comfortable.
Tim
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