"Friendly Fire" or Outrageous Accusations or Gossip: When our reputation is on the line.

This guest post is written by none other than my amazing husband.  I cannot tell you how timely his words.  Our church is currently working its way through The Story which is the Bible written in a novel format.  This week we studied the story of Hezekiah.  Many who will read this are unaware of what our family is currently dealing with  but for those who know what we have encountered in the last 48 hours this post is right on time.  Not only that but my husband wrote this several years ago.  In the middle of a stressful situation he sent it to me yesterday and as I read, I was overwhelmed by God's perfect timing and faithfulness.  Please take the time to read and be encouraged!! 

2 Kings 18-19

What do we do when we’re under attack from others? Whether it’s “friendly fire” from other Christians, outrageous accusations from those who are out to bring us down, or gossip coming from people who have nothing better to do, how do we handle that? It’s difficult enough when our reputations are at stake, but what do we do when there is more on the line than our reputation?

In the middle of 2 Kings 18, we find the king of Assyria threatening to attack Jerusalem. At the time, Hezekiah was the king of Jerusalem, and he knew these were not empty threats. The king of Assyria had not only the capability, but every intention to attack Jerusalem and take the people captive.

Assyria had already done the same thing to Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom. Over a period of many years they had gone on a rampage, extending their reign of terror all the way to attacking and capturing cities in the Southern Kingdom. Now they’re ready to attack its capital.

There are times we are forced to deal with people who come against us. Sometimes they’re just verbal attacks. Other times they make empty threats, and yet other times these people have every intention of inflicting as much pain as they possibly can. Sometimes they have the ability to carry out their threats, other times they are empty and meaningless. When people come against us like this, we don’t always know what their true intentions are or are not, and we experience anxiety, angst, and sometimes torment as we struggle to work through it all.

Look specifically at the threats the king of Assyria is making. In 2 Kings 18:17, he has sent messengers to give a specific message to Hezekiah. Strategies to threaten and scare people today differ little from strategies used back then:

• He builds himself up. “This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says…”
• He questions their source of confidence. “On what are you basing this confidence of yours?” In doing so, he questions specifically their military strength, their strategy, and their allies (see vs. 19-21). Not only does he cause them to question those areas, he causes them to question their confidence in what was most dear to them, the Lord their God: “And if you say to me, ‘We are depending on the Lord our God…’”
• He tries to get them to compromise and make a deal: “Come now, make a bargain with my master…”
• He claims that he is the one doing God’s work: “Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this place without word from the Lord? The Lord himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.”
• He intentionally sends this message to Hezekiah in such a way so that others hear it. Hezekiah’s messengers responded by saying, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall. But the commander replied, was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the men sitting on the wall…” This is an attempt to create division and cause God’s people to question their loyalty to Hezekiah.
• He attempts to persuade God’s people to turn away from Hezekiah’s leadership and not to trust in the Lord their God. In doing so, he claims that Hezekiah is the one deceiving them. He turns his attention to the people and says, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you from my hand. Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ Do not listen to Hezekiah….” Look specifically at verses 28 – 35 for the full picture of how he goes on and on in this attempt to turn their hearts away from Hezekiah and their trust in the Lord. He finishes this attempt to discourage and dissuade God’s people by saying, “Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”

From the beginning of time, one of the most common strategies to discourage and threaten people is half-truths. There is enough truth mixed in with the lies that it could have easily caused God’s people to question their loyalty and faith in Hezekiah and the Lord their God. It’s a normal response for us to question what we know to be true when people come against us with half-truths. This is the case even more so when they throw in “God talk” or claim that they are the ones with God on their side. It can be incredibly disheartening and discouraging.

Hezekiah was not immune from this discouragement. In the beginning of chapter 19, we see Hezekiah’s response. “When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord.” Thankfully, Hezekiah didn’t stop there. While it might have been easier in that moment to throw his hands up in the air and throw the towel in, he didn’t give up. This is often a decision point for us. While it’s very normal to be discouraged, we must not give up. Hezekiah sought the Lord in the midst of his discouragement and we must do the same.

First, he sent messengers to Isaiah, a prophet of God. In those days, the word of God came primarily through prophets, so this was a normal place for Hezekiah to go in seeking out God’s wisdom in the situation. For us today, while we can and should seek out godly counsel from God’s people, we should start with God’s Word. Open your bible, pray, read, and expect to hear from God. Not three minutes glancing over a paragraph, but earnestly praying, reading, and listening. Even if there is not a clear answer like Hezekiah received from Isaiah, you will find wisdom and encouragement when you diligently seek after God in the midst of your storm. In short, he fights deception with the truth of God’s Word.

The report comes back from Isaiah for Hezekiah not to be afraid and that God will deliver Jerusalem from the king of Assyria. What’s interesting though is that the story must play out. The threat is real, the sword is real, and the soldiers are real. Even though Hezekiah has been told that God will deliver His people, it doesn’t happen immediately. God will provide, God will protect, and God’s plans will ultimately prevail, but it’s always in His timing, and so the drama and difficulty continue.

In the midst of these messages between Hezekiah and Isaiah, there is more action out in the field. The king of Assyria gets word that the king of Egypt is on his way to fight against him. At this point the king of Assyria amps up his threats against God’s people. We read the king of Assyria’s response in chapter 19, verses 10-13. 

“Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.’ Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And you will be delivered? Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my forefathers deliver them: the gods of Gozan, Haran, Reseph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, or of Hena or Ivvah?”

He doesn’t say anything new. He only repeats what he has already said. And here we see yet another strategy used by the ungodly as they threaten God’s people. When they run out of other threats, they just scream louder and with more intensity as a scare tactic. 

In the case of Hezekiah, it didn’t work. Hezekiah’s confidence remained in God and God’s ability to deliver His people. But look specifically at what Hezekiah did in response. In 19:14, he took this latest threat to the Lord in prayer. But again, it wasn’t a ten second prayer mumbled in passing. It was diligent. It was earnest. It was heartfelt. He specifically went up to the temple, spread out the latest letter from the king of Assyria, and prayed specifically about the situation. Look at what he prays and how he goes about it in verses 14-19: 

“Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: ‘O Lord, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God. It is true, O Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by men’s hands. Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God.”

Of all the different aspects we could note about his prayer, the three main characteristics that stick out are that

• Hezekiah praised God for His uniqueness as the one true God and the maker of heaven and earth.
• Hezekiah had confidence in God’s ability to deliver His people, and
• Hezekiah asked God to deliver His people for God’s fame and renown, not his own.

We would do well to not just pray, but to pray earnestly and model aspects of our own prayer for deliverance to  Hezekiah's prayer. Trust that God alone is the one true God and praise Him as such. Believe that God has the ability to deliver you and fight for you, and ask God to do it for His own glory, not yours.

This is one area where prayer and bible reading go hand in hand. When you have difficulty believing these promises, read His Word. Focus, meditate, and dwell on His Word. And as you read, ask God (pray) for the confidence to believe fully His promises about you and your situation as you read.

In response to Hezekiah’s prayer, God sent him a message through the prophet Isaiah. We read the entire message in 19:20-34, but the short of it is that God will deliver Jerusalem from the Assyrians. We read in verses 33-34, 

“By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city, declares the Lord. I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.”

We must believe that God is powerful and can do whatever He chooses to do. God’s deliverance from this threat and the conclusion to this story is found in verses 35-38. 

“That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning – there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. One day, while he was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.”

The bible is replete with examples of the mighty and powerful hand of God. He may choose to use you or not use you, but one thing we can be certain of is that He does not lack the ability or strength.

In this particular story, God delivered His people using an angel of the Lord. In other places in the bible, He used nature (rocks, hail, storms, wind, etc), His own people fighting against the enemy, the enemy fighting against themselves, and sometimes He just changed the heart or mind of the enemy to bring about deliverance. No matter how He does it, the point is that God’s arm is not too short and that He is able to bring about what He chooses.

One last thought about this story is in order. While Hezekiah did the right thing by seeking out God’s Word through Isaiah and through prayer, and while his example is a model to how we can handle such threats, that’s not all he did. He didn’t stand idly by and do nothing else. He took measures. Yes he prayed, yes he sought after God, but he also did what he knew to do and what he thought was best. His actions were not limited to prophet and prayer. This same story is recorded in 2 Chronicles 32. We read in that chapter that Hezekiah also consulted with his officials, blocked the water flow to the land, worked hard at repairing and building the all around the city, made large numbers of weapons and shields, and appointed military officers over the people (see 2 Chronicles 32: 2-6).

Are his actions and all the measures he took contrary to his faith in God and God’s ability to deliver Jerusalem? Absolutely not. He knew that God could fight for them, but He also knew that sometimes God uses us to bring about our deliverance. He did what he was able to do, but he did it trusting all the while that God was stronger than their enemies.

For us, it means that while we pray and seek after God in the midst of our storm, we also do what we are able to do practically. Not in our own wisdom and strength, but trusting that God is with us and able to accomplish His purposes, with or without our help.

In fact, in the verse immediately following all the preparations Hezekiah made, we read these words that Hezekiah used to encourage God’s people. 

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater power with us than with him. With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.”

The fact of the matter is that our storm may not always end with our complete deliverance as we read about in the way God fought for Jerusalem from the king of Assyria. God allows us to go through storms, but doesn’t always bring about the resolution we want. He may or He may not, that’s up to Him to decide.

However, in the midst of the storm, in the midst of the threats and accusations from those who oppose you, in the midst of the trials you are facing, take encouragement from how Hezekiah handled his storm. Pray specifically about your situation. Read His Word. Do what you can practically. Seek after God. Trust that God is mighty, powerful, and able. And believe that the maker of heaven and earth is for you and will never leave your side.

With Love, The Adulterous Woman

Not many will understand or may have experienced the certain pain which comes from the betrayal left behind by those we once loved as they walked away.  

For me, the wounds created began with the title, adulterer.  Stories were told while the people in my life clutched hold of gossip and walked away.  I patiently waited.

Rumors spread like wildfire.  Whispers full of judgement and raised eyebrows brought pain that couldn’t be ignored.  I patiently waited.

The echos of the world yelled fight back.  
God said, "Be still."  

My children cried at the cruelty caused by ignorance.  I patiently prayed.  

From court hearings where lies were spoken, to documents where history was rewritten, the fire grew tall and the smoke suffocatingly thick.  I patiently waited.

Friend you know the pain.  You’ve sat in that same cold courtroom listening to the words of betrayal. The feelings of darkness and isolation pulsating from the other side leave you bewildered and questioning your own sanity. You know the dark filled lonely nights full of tears crying out to God for His rescue.  You too have heard Him say, “Be still and wait.”

Waiting.  The hardest part of waiting when you have been trampled on, talked about, lied about, and labeled, becomes that of waiting. The longer you wait, you begin to believe the lies. The longer you wait, you begin to accept the titles. For me, my title became the adulterous woman.  But God.

Through all the name calling and shunning, I found something.  I found a love like no other. In the midst of pain, I became desperate.  A mighty thirst for genuine community grew deep within my heart.  I wanted to know the love and loyalty of a true friend. I prayed and patiently waited.

Suddenly, a door opened and a glorious light shined into my loneliness.  As He walked through the door, Jesus wiped away every tear and began mending my broken heart.  As He wrapped me in His arms, enormous love and kindness filled His eyes as He said, "You are MINE."

This man began picking up every piece of my broken heart and meticulously worked them into something new.  As He worked, He spoke to my broken heart.  "You are my beloved child."  

How had I forgotten?  

For the first time in too many years, my heart began to beat again as the healing words of His truth and love were spoken into my life. His presence and peace overwhelmed me. He cast aside those “names” given by others and replaced them with "Daughter of The One True King." 

You see it is easy to be defined by the words of others.  It is easy to fall prey to the attacks of the enemy as he works to discourage and torment leaving us to forget our true identity.  

It is easy to forget that sin is sin.  Gossip, lies and betrayal. No one is without sin and no amount of “good works” makes us any better than another. The enemy points to our sin and calls us failure but Jesus redeems and calls us His own.

So from one sinner to another and from one who has been redeemed and restored, take the childish playground name calling and untold truths in stride. Don’t allow it to define you.  Remember who you are and to Whom you belong.  He knows every heart and every thought.  He knows what has happened behind closed doors.  He knows every ounce of pain and every tear that has fallen. He will rectify all the wrong that has been done.  He makes all things new because His mercies are new every morning.  

Wait patiently and trust His timing.  Allow Him to fight for you because in the end, I can promise you, He will give back to you all that was taken and so much more.  When we walk with Him and choose good over evil, we win! Just have faith my sweet friend <3

With Love,

a Daughter of the One True King

“The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.”

Exodus 14:14

Fear, an Ambulance and God's Promise

Fear.  We all experience it.  May even be crippled by it.  It can consume and overwhelm us.  Lead us to a very dark place.  Make us doubt.  Lose sight of what we know to be true.  

A week ago today, fear gripped hold of me.  Consumed by the darkness it created, I lost sight of a known truth in my life: God is in control.

After a frustrating morning of car issues and getting two kids to school my phone rang. Almost home I heard my daughter screaming into the phone something about her brother. Panic set in.  A mom knows.  Something was very wrong and I could feel it.  

As I raced into the house, I found my little one hunched over on the bathroom floor. In that moment, my faith was forgotten.  The cries of fear escaped my lips.  As I repeated my little boy’s name over through the tears, I forgot Who was in control.  Devastation and heartache of losing something I hold so dear consumed me and in an instant truth disappeared.

How quickly it happens.  One wrong turn or unexplained event and we forget God’s goodness.  All the good He’s given tossed out the window because of fear.  Thoughts of it now lead to great feelings of frustration.  These fearful moments are nothing new.  I’ve experienced them before and trusted His hand in the past.  Why now did I forget?

How easy it is to become distracted and lose sight of His face.  

I am learning the importance of focusing on truth.  Seeking His face.  That morning frustration of a broken down car and an unplanned visit to carpool distracted me. I lost sight of the many other provisions God has placed in my life.  Too busy focusing on the negative and the unknown, His peace had escaped me.

This is My command: be strong and courageous.  Never be afraid or discouraged because I am your God, the Eternal One, and I will remain with you wherever you do.

Joshua 1:9

God was there.  He had not left my side.  But I had forgotten Him. Sitting in the back of an ambulance looking at my child as he cried, God’s presence overwhelmed me.  As my little guy cried through big tears, “mommy, I’m scared”  it all came back.  My child needed me.  In his moment of fear,  my job was to comfort him.  I needed to remember.

Finally, brothers and sisters, fill your minds with beauty and truth.  Meditate on whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is good, whatever is virtuous and praiseworthy.  Keep to the script: whatever you learned and received and heard and saw in me - do it -  and the God of peace will walk with you.

Philippians 4:8-9

And in that moment a peace that passes all understanding rocked me to the core.  As I took my little one’s face into my hands truth flowed from my lips, “sweet boy, God knew before we woke up this morning that this was going to happen.  He is not surprised by it.  He is right here with us and gave us these amazing firemen and paramedics to take care of you.  After everything we’ve been through and seen God do, we are not going to doubt Him now.”   And there He was.  He hadn’t left even though I had forgotten.  

And with that, all fear was gone.  I remembered who holds not just my life but that of my children in His hands. Suddenly those tears that fell from my little one’s eyes disappeared and he smiled.    

Bad and scary things happen.  We will never escape them but there is someone who knows every detail and give us all we need if we just choose to trust Him in those moments.  He has never failed me.  Not once.  Though I often lose sight of Him, He never lets go of me.

You see all things;

  You saw me growing, changing in my mother’s womb;

Every detail of my life was already written in Your book;

  You established the length of my life before I ever tasted the

sweetness of it.

Your thoughts and plans are treasures to me, O God!  I cherish each

and every one of them!

   How grand in scope!  How many in number!

If I could count each of them, they would be more than all the

grains of sand on earth.  Their number is inconceivable!

  Even when I wake up, I am still near to You.

Psalm 139:16-18

A Broken Angel, A Shattered Heart and One Extravagant Christmas Miracle

 Constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop.  Living in a state of anxious thoughts that God can’t bless me.  I cannot be this happy.  I am divorced. My home is broken.  God is angry with me.  He doesn't want me.

Because of a bad decision, a sin I committed at the age of 15, I lived many years dealing with the consequences.  I also lived believing God was angry with me and had no true purpose for my life.  I lived my life wanting to serve Him and did so in hopes of gaining His approval. Wanting His love. But never feeling worthy.  I felt my life could not be used because of my sins.  My past haunted me daily.  

Almost six years ago I embarked on a journey down a very dark path that drew me closer to Jesus.  As I was cast out by a church and turned away by friends and family, I learned what following Jesus truly meant.  I learned how to listen to His voice and follow His leading.  For the first time, I embraced His love and understood and accepted His grace.  

When you make a choice to go against the beliefs and advice of others and hold fast to what you know to be true, you expose yourself to great challenges.  Defying another, especially a pastor, leaves you vulnerable to enormous ridicule and loneliness.  When you make a choice to follow the Holy Spirit as He leads, you don’t always win the favor of those around you.  

That was me.  I had spent hours and hours upon my knees in prayer.  Praying for so many things.  Looking for answers.  Looking for change.  When the Spirit began moving in my life and I stood up against those who attempted to manipulate me into following their voice, I faced severe consequence.  But those consequences changed my life forever and grew my faith in ways I never thought possible.

I was left totally on my own.  My church, my friends and certain family abandoned me.  They cast me aside.  At the time, it was devastating.  It was heartbreaking. But now it has become one of the greatest blessings and lessons in my life.  

God taught me to trust Him in all things.  Even when it seemed all hope was lost and I felt like I was sinking, He was there.

When you are dealing with storms, often through the darkness, God parts the clouds and gives you a beautiful glimpse of His love.  In dark moments He reveals to you those things or people in your life you need to separate yourself from but also those you need to pull closer.  He provides when all hope feels lost and emptiness is overwhelming. I experienced those moments. They became precious and intimate gifts from my Heavenly Daddy as He made His presence known in my life.  

When the gossip spread that I was running from God, having an affair, and had walked away from my faith, He intervened and revealed Himself in mighty ways.  From simple messages from those who loved me to finding bags of groceries at my front door, His presence was undeniable.  From each verbal attack from those who questioned my character and made me doubt myself, God spoke into my heart and reminded me I was His and He had great plans for me. Though others walked away, His presence never left me.  His arms were always there to hold me up as He embraced me with His love.

The past couple of years have been amazing.   God has blessed and provided for my children and me in more ways than I can write in one post.  But this Christmas He sent me a precious reminder. Many months ago, my daughter broke something of mine that was very special to me.  It was something from my previous life that held a significant place in my heart. It had served as a reminder of God's faithfulness through my trials and storms.  The day it broke, my heart shattered.  But God.  

On December 1, 2012 God gave me the most wonderful blessing I had had in many years.  He gave me my husband. Some know our story, others have formulated their own version but to summarize, we were two broken people, God redeemed and gave to one another.  My husband is my dream come true.  This Christmas God used him to remind me of His restoring love.  

Unbeknownst to me, but not my boys, my husband had collected the pieces of my broken angel and was determined to repair the damage. He spent months gluing back the many broken pieces. Each time I left the house (which was rare) he would pull out those pieces working to repair what I had lost.  Behind the scenes he worked to restore the brokenness.  

On Christmas morning, as I pulled the angel out of the bright red bag, overwhelming joy flooded my heart.  As I took it all in my mind immediately went to the love of my Heavenly Daddy.  For years my shattered heart laid a broken mess.  Broken and unraveled, I needed fixing.  

But God.  He scooped up all my broken pieces and one by one began putting them back together.  It took time allowing for the “glue” to dry. It took great precision as each piece now fit a little differently. And some were no longer needed. Things didn’t go back the way they had once been but instead fit together in a new and more beautiful way.  

He took the entire broken and shattered mess I had become and turned it into a masterpiece that became a display of His restoring love and grace.  A magnificent portrait of His faithfulness.  Just as my husband restored my angel.

My husband is a beautiful reflection and reminder of God’s love and faithfulness.  His love is something I have never experienced.  Each day because of his love for me, I get a taste of how my Heavenly Daddy loves me.  So complete and selfless.

I look at my life and see what others do not.  Many feel pity for my children and sadness for what we’ve endured. Heavy hearted because they come from a broken home.  But God has shown me something different.  Each time my children smile and laugh, I am reminded that God restored our broken home.  He put together all the broken pieces of our lives and gave us something beautiful.  A home full of love.  A home where He is welcome. He took our shattered broken mess and turned it into a extravagant tapestry of His love and grace.

How enduring is God’s loyal love;

the Eternal has inexhaustible compassion.

Here they are, every morning new!

Your faithfulness, God, is as broad as the day.

Have courage, for the Eternal is all that I will need.

My soul boasts, “Hope in God; just wait.”

It is good,  The Eternal One is good to those who expect Him,

to those who seek Him wholeheartedly.

It is good to wait quietly

for the Eternal to make things right again.

Lamentations 3:22-26

A man, a fish and a second chance: What happens when we run?

Do you believe in second chances?  What about the Creator of Universe giving second chances? Arguments go both ways but for me, I am a die hard believer in the fact that God does give second chances.  In fact, I am living breathing proof that He is the giver of second chances.

Whether you grew up in church you are probably familiar with the story about a man named Jonah and his encounter with a large fish.  You may not know the details but you’re familiar with the points.  Let me give you a quick synopsis.  

• Jonah was a prophet chosen by God to speak on His behalf
• Jonah was told by God to travel to Nineveh and deliver a message that He would destroy the city.  Nineveh was a wicked place and the fiercest enemy of Jonah’s people.
• Jonah boards a ship and “runs” in the opposite direction towards Tarshish.  A city as far to the west as any Israelite had ever traveled.
• The ship encounters a horrible storm in which the lives of the sailors on the ship are threatened.  The sailors ask Jonah to call out to his God and ask for favor.
• Jonah admits to the sailors that the storm is his fault as he is running away from God  and volunteers to be thrown overboard in order to save them.
• The sailors are terrified to throw one of God’s people overboard and attempt to row back to shore but fail.  They finally throw Jonah off the ship.
• Jonah does not die but instead is swallowed by a large fish and stays there for three days and three nights.  
• While in the belly of the fish, Jonah cries out to God and thanks Him for saving him from  being swallowed up by the sea.  Jonah has a change of heart and chooses to obey God’s command to go to Nineveh. The fish “spits” Jonah out right back where he started.
• God comes to Jonah a second time.  Back to the place he first started and God gives Jonah the exact same message: Go to Nineveh and give them my message.
• Having learned his lesson the hard way, Jonah travels to Nineveh.

Wow.  Quite the story.  Hard to accept? A man being swallowed by a fish?  Maybe.  But I consider it to be true.  I also believe it to be a beautiful story of second chances.  An amazing story of God’s grace and redemption.  

How often do we hear God’s voice and walk in the opposite direction due to fear or pride?  I know I have on more than one occasion.  I have allowed fear to take the reins and lead me down into the belly of the fish. A place where I felt all hope was lost until I cried out to God to save me.  And He has.

It is easy to get lost in this crazy world.  There are so many wrong turns we can take, each leading us down a winding path of chaos and destruction but there is also a pathway leading out.  Residence in the belly of a fish does not have to last forever.

Nineteen years ago I was married for the first time.  I made a choice for myself.  I thought it was the right choice.  I thought I was doing the right thing.  Do you see the “I” in each of those statements? The “I” was my downfall.  For as much as I wanted to be doing the right thing, I was  far from it.  At twenty, I had been living in the belly of the fish for many years.  Unlike Jonah, I was unaware because my relationship with Jesus was distant.  I knew Him and “followed” Him the way in which I understood, but it was not with the entirety of my life.  I lacked the understanding of giving Him complete control and surrendering everything to Him.  Choices and all.  At the time, my understanding of God’s will was lacking.  

When I got married, I married believing it was forever.  Divorce was not an option and did not exist in my vocabulary.  Even knowing I was not where God wanted me, I recognized I had to endure the consequences of my choice. And so I forged ahead and accepted the path I had chosen.

One of the greatest discoveries for me in my thirty nine years of existence is this: When we are a follower of Jesus yet choose to go our own way without Him, we will fail.  No matter how hard we try, how much work we put into the fight, if we go at it alone, we will not succeed.  God cannot fix what is broken if we will not release it to Him.  

We also cannot force someone else to “be fixed” or to choose Jesus.  It is unfortunate and sad when Jesus is not in the picture because all hell breaks loose. Things falls apart and when you are left hanging by a thread, sometimes you have to let go and trust.

That was me.  Sitting in the belly of the fish crying out to God asking for clarity and direction.  I wanted to be rescued.  I desired to be right where He wanted me.

What a revelation when you realize that God allows things to happen in order for you to find Him.  He shakes us up to expose what is truly in our heart. He allows us to make our own choices.  We are not His puppets.  We choose whether to go left or right completely on our own.  If we choose wrong, we face the music.  We fight through the consequences.  We get swallowed up by the fish and God waits.  

Then through our tears and repentance, He rescues.  He picks us up and sets our feet right back where we were before we took that wrong turn and says, “Let’s do this again. But this time, let’s do it My way.”

Think of Jonah. He ran in the opposite direction.  God chose him to deliver this great message that would save a people group and he ran. His disobedience led to consequences that involved spending three dreadful days in the smelly darkness of a fish. However it led to a heart that softened to God’s purpose for his life.  For Jonah, the fish was the provision that saved his life and led to a complete redo.  Back to square one. The opportunity to say yes a second time.  WOW!  A second attempt to be used by the Creator of the Universe.  To be a part of His story.  

For me, my redo became me saying “I do” a second time.  The opportunity to find love and to experience marriage the way in which He designed.  To love like I have never known.  To be loved in a way that I cannot put into words.  To walk each day with my best friend as we share God’s love with those in our life.  He has given me a purpose and message to share His love and grace while offering hope to those who have none.  To continue telling His story of second chances.

Second chances are real.  God DOES give second chances when we choose to trust His hand and His leading.  He does not give up on us when we’re ready to give on ourselves.  He extends His grace and pours Himself into us making us usable.  Our mess can become His message if we say yes!