AVOIDABLE LOSSES

DAY 282

Reference text: Jonah 1:1-17,2:1-10

We read the very popular story of Jonah today, where he fled the presence of God to escape to Tarshish instead of going to Nineveh with the message he had been given. He legally bought and paid for a ship ticket, got on board and went straight to bed. Perhaps, saying to himself ‘I have escaped’.

It was clear the words of the Psalmist had not been registered in his memory ‘Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there (Ps 139:7-8). In fact, there was really was no escaping the omnipresent God.

What is interesting is that while the sailors were struggling to calm the waves of the sea which had become tempestuous on account of Jonah’s presence, he was in the inner parts of the ship soundly asleep. Through no fault of theirs, they had to try many things to keep the ship afloat, including hurling their precious cargo into the sea.

The charge today is, therefore a call to prayer, ‘that the boat of your life will be hedged from Jonah’ – those whose presence cause you to make avoidable losses in life and in destiny. These include physical, material, financial, social, psychological and spiritual losses.

#sly