JONAH: Week One

I just completed Week One of Priscilla Shirer's study book Jonah: Navigating a Life Interrupted. Tonight our study group meets at Champion Fellowship to discuss what God's been showing us through the study, and to watch the video for the next lesson. I'll be facilitating a small group during this study, and am looking forward to the interaction. Here are some key points from Week One.

Day One:
Insignificant Person + Insignificant Task = Interruption
Significant Person + Significant Task = Divine Intervention

How do I view interruptions in life? Are they an inconvenience? Do they cost me time and money to stop and do something not in my plans? What if I viewed them as gifted to me from God to accomplish His bigger purpose?

I find we all have the potential for significance, not from anything within ourselves except a choice we make to allow God to work. Which leads to Day Two.

Day Two:
"God doesn't need us to complete His purposes, yet He still chooses to ask us to partner with Him...Believing that divine interruptions are a privilege not only will cause us to handle them differently but also to await them eagerly." Page 17

Divine Intervention + Yielded Submission = Eternal Significance

When I think of yielding or submitting to God, I think of merging on to traffic. They have the right of way. I must stop and look and use all my senses and then join the flow of traffic. Just like in life. If I'm to yield to God, I have to stop what I'm doing and stop going in my direction at my speed, and merge to His direction, His speed, His wishes.

Day Three:
How will we make our mark—make a difference—for the Kingdom? It's when we come to an end of ourselves and put God's agenda ahead of our own. It's not about my resume or my abilities. It's about my availability to God's leading. And through this yielding, it is God who is writing my story. And He knows how it's going to end!

Day Four:
The real star in my story—just like in Jonah's story—is God. He's the One who makes the difference. Page 23 says, "...having a fresh view of Him is paramount if we are to begin believing that life interruptions are really divine interventions."

I see that God IS the boss of me—He is the owner. I'm merely the manager. We haven't been asked to be in charge of our lives, but to make sure the boss' wishes are carried out by overseeing the implementation of His instructions.

Day Five:
Sometimes following God makes no sense, but His ways are not our ways. They might even sound ridiculous, like some distorted dream. But His instructions are very real and when we act on what He says, we are showing trust and faith in His plan. Our feelings and thoughts can sometimes lie to us and confuse us. By being focused on God's Word we can have a true measure of what is right (through the Bible and through the nudges of the Holy Spirit as well as from instruction through wise counsel).