The blindness of Jonah
Jonah 1:4-5 and 14-15
Jonah was one of the greatest evangelist but there were 3 areas in which he was blind
1. Jonah was blind to the lost, Jonah 1:8.
- Jonah was preoccupied by his ministry and was blind to the lost. We can be like Jonah fast asleep at the bottom of the ship and we don’t hear the cries of those around us. We can get caught up in our church bubble, where it’s all nice and easy but the world needs the gospel.
- God is waking up the church to what’s around us, that the world is worried about their lives and what will happen to them.
2. Jonah was blind to his idols, Jonah 2:6-8
- In verse 8 Jonah realised he was sinking because he’d been holding onto the idols in his life.
- Some of Jonah’s idols:
- Comfort; Lots of us are also caught up with comfort. We need to remember that we will have eternal comfort in heaven, but in the meantime there’s a job to do.
- Ministry; our ministry can become all consuming, if we’re not spending time with non Christians then we’re missing the ministry. We’re all called to witness, live a life of overflow, looking all the time to bless others with Jesus.
3. Jonah was blind to the worm Jonah 4:6-8
- God loves us too much to let us live solely for ourselves. There are 3 worms God sends to get us out of this:
- Comparison; if we were praying for transport and God gives us a bike we’d be really happy and could think it was because of us, but then next week we hear of someone else whose also prayed for transport and they get a car. It’s a helpful reminder, so that we don’t live in our own ego centric world.
- Criticism; it can really hurt but it challenges and motivates us. If you’re criticised unjustly about something and you want to get back at the person, then you’re probably doing it for the wrong reasons.
- Commitment; God is sovereign and will get us to the point of being desperate where we see God and God only and then he can use us.
Our hearts can become hard and like Jonah we can judge the world and see it as ‘us and them’. Our hearts need to become soft in order for us to see how God sees and to have hearts of compassion.