Tracy’s Thoughts Day 18

When Your Plans That Don’t Pan

Have you ever had a day when everything you planned to do, just didn’t materialize? Or maybe a week or even a month… oh, my! For me yesterday was just one of those days. I finally had squeezed out a little time to catch up on some much behind paperwork when – snafu the website went belly up. Well not totally, but enough that it wasn’t functioning. Thank you, Chas, for giving me the heads up. Finally fixed that when, unexpected visitors, unexpected hospital visit and before you know it the day was gone! My plans didn’t pan (out).

That my friends got me thinking about Jonah. His plans were NOT to go to Nineveh! He didn’t like those people, you might even say he was a bigot, and he sure didn’t care if they were destroyed, or maybe he wasn’t hot on the message he had to share. I know I wouldn’t want to stand up in any town and tell people they were wicked and would be destroyed! So, Jonah caught the next ship to “the opposite way”. But God had His plan, and He used a storm and a great fish to get Jonah’s attention. Wouldn’t you know, behold the king ordered everyone to pray, repent and fast, even the animals had to fast! God in His mercy changed His mind and the town was spared.

Now look at Jonah’s reaction in Jonah 4:1-4 This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry.2 So he complained to the LORD about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, LORD? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. 3 Just kill me now, LORD! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.” Wow, sounds like someone was a little mad about the change of plans!

Here are my thoughts, how many times do we get upset when our plans change? I know I’m guilty. Jonah missed a great blessing by not being thankful for the city and its inhabitants being spared (I bet those people would have given him gifts of thanks, after all, without the message they would have been wiped out) instead he was more worried about his plan than Gods plan.

So, if today doesn’t go just like I plan, I’m not going to worry about it; you never know, God just might have a bigger plan!

Let’s pray, Lord I thank you that we can learn from Jonah’s example. Help us to remember that your ways are higher than our ways. Help us to be more like you, slow to anger and full of unfailing love. In Jesus Name Amen