In the story of Jonah we discover that it is often much harder to give grace than to receive it. Jonah experiences repeated interventions of God’s grace but the thought of God being gracious to those he thought were undeserving drove him crazy. So crazy, in fact, that he becomes more focused on the life of a gourd than the lives of 120,000 sinful people.
Andy Stanley asks the following questions…
Who are the Ninevites in your life?
Who are the people to whom you have a hard time extending grace?
Whose calamity do you secretly celebrate?
Who do you secretly wish would get what you think they have coming to them?
If there were ever an undeserving group of people it was the Ninevites, yet God wanted to show them grace. Do I? Or is there a gourd I’d rather consume myself with?
Remember you can’t love someone you feel superior to.
I’m amazed at how similar this part of the story is to one Jesus told. There once was a king who decided to reconcile his accounts and there was one who owed 10,000 talents of gold…
Just awesome! I also love your blog’s design! I just started one myself for our church’s website. I’m kind of new to blogging though so I’m checking out other Christian blogs to get some inspiration for design and content. Feel free to check our new blog at our church in Bellevue
Would love to know what you think!