There is Growing in Going

Jonah 4:2 - CSB He prayed to the Lord, “Please, Lord, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my own country? That’s why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster.

Perhaps you’ve seen the Avodart commercial where the man goes to his doctor thinking that he had a “going problem,” and he finds out that he has a “growing problem.” The idea is somewhat comical, but for the church, the idea is a principle. Is it not true that churches that have a going problem also have a growing problem? The normal Christian life is a life of going and sharing. Part of a believer s growth, as well as the church’s ought to be the discipline of sharing the good news.

For Jonah, his going problem was evidenced by his growing problem.

It is clear that he heard the Lord say go (Jonah 1:2). It is clear that Jonah understood the character and compassion of his Lord toward Nineveh (Jonah 4:2). And, yet Jonah was still bitter after seeing spiritual awakening in Nineveh. Perhaps the growing problem for Jonah was this: Jonah knew the character of the Lord intellectually, but did not live out the same values of the Lord. If you have a going problem then you have a growing problem. - Jim L. Wilson and Eric Herrstrom