TODAY IS…

the day to understand that nothing is hopeless with God.

“From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.”  Jonah 2:1 NIV

It would be difficult to imagine anyone with a better reason to view a situation as hopeless more so than Jonah when he suddenly found himself inside a great fish.

Jonah was like many of us. God wanted him to do something, but Jonah had a different idea. Disobeying God did not work out so well for Jonah, as is usually the case in our lives today. But when Jonah was in what many would consider to be a hopeless situation, what did he do?

He turned to God for help.

“As my life was slipping away, I remembered the Lord. And my earnest prayer went out to You in Your holy Temple.” (Jonah 2:7 NLT).

Imagine that.

When Jonah thought the situation was hopeless he turned to the One he had turned away from in the first place. And what happened? Did God turn away from Jonah? Did God say, “Tough luck, buddy. You made your bed, now sleep in it.”?

Of course not. God doesn’t work that way, and that is very good news for those of us who seem to think we know better than God what we should do, how we should live, and how we should act.

The truth is, if God were as quick to reject us as we are to reject Him, the human race would have ended long, long ago.

But God is so full of love for us that He will allow us to be disobedient; He will allow us to get ourselves in bad situations; He will allow us to ignore His commandments. And when we suddenly look around and realize what a mess we have made of things, He is standing right there waiting for us to call out for help.

Obviously, all situations in our lives that we may view as hopeless are not of our own doing. Sickness and tragedy; disease and death; dilemmas brought on by the actions of others – all of these things can create situations that we may feel are hopeless.

We only need to remember Jonah and do what he did.

Turn to God.

For with God, nothing is hopeless.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson