This morning I want to look at Jonah, and point out some similarities to our lives. First of all we see that God had a job for Jonah, just as He as a job for each of us. But, like me Jonah said "No way am I doing that". So he tried to run away from God. He tried to run away from the omnipresent God. Because he was trying to run, he got himself in a mess. God allowed a storm to come up in order to get Jonah's attention. But God had also prepared a way to get Jonah out of the problem.
We are told that all things work together for good, so let's consider the men on the boat, because of Jonah's presence, and God calming the storm, those men turned their lives over to God. "Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD AND MADE VOWS". Even in disobedience, Jonah was a witness, and an example.
Of Course, true to His nature, once Jonah realized his mistake and prayed asking for forgiveness, God returned Jonah to his place, "And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land". Then God again told Jonah that He had a job for him. This time Jonah obeyed.
This isn't the end of Jonah's sin though, he obeyed God without complaint, even though in his heart, he was not happy about it. He preached according to God's word, and the people of Nineveh repented. Jonah was not happy about this, he wanted Nineveh destroyed. So he went upon a hill outside the city, and prayed for God to kill him. How many times in our lives have we been unhappy about God's will for us? God asked him, if he had a legitimate reason to be angry, Jonah could not answer.
So Jonah is sitting on the hill outside the city, waiting to see what would happen. It was hot, and Jonah was miserable, so God made a gourd to grow, and provide shade for him. But, the gourd was not just to provide shade, as it usually is with God, He had a lesson in store for Jonah.
"But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered." Jnh 4:7. God was not through, He also sent a strong wind, and it got so hot that Jonah fainted from the heat. Once again, he wished he could die. Then God asked Jonah if he had a right to be angry about the gourd, ch. 4:9b "I do well to be angry, even to death."
So God drops the bomb on Jonah in verse 10, "Thou has had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured...", vs 11 "And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons...?" Jonah, you are crying over a plant dieing, and yet you want me to kill 120,000 people. Can you imagine what went through Jonah's head right about now? Probably the same thing that has went through my head, when God pointed out to me, just how childish I was being.

I feel I must apologize, I came up with today's devotion at the last minute. I have been preoccupied, I had a really disturbing experience at "church" yesterday, and could not concentrate on the devotion, because I kept looking up verses that related to that event. Words can not express, the way I felt when I walked out of the service. I have never been in such an ungodly service in a Baptist church in my life.
Please pray that we are able to find the church that God wants us in.