I hope that you all know the story of Jonah. God told him to go and preach to Nineveh, but Jonah had his own ideas and ran away from God. As a result, there was a big storm at sea, the boat he was on was about to wreck and Jonah knew that he was the reason. So, he told the sailors to throw him overboard (since he was the one who was disobeying God) and they would be fine. The sailors did, and God sent a big fish to swallow Jonah. He stayed there for three days and nights. Hmm. It would be interesting to know what he was doing during that time, but I would guess some heavy thinking and repenting since once the fish spit him out, he went where God had told him to go in the first place.

God has appointed things for each of us to do and He gets our attention in ways that only the Creator can. He has a plan and He will work His plan, with or without our cooperation. It is a much better idea to go along with God’s plan to begin with than to come up with our own “better idea.” There is no better plan than God’s and no way that we can circumvent His plan. Jonah found that out the hard way. Perhaps we would prefer to spend more time with God, find out what He wants us to do and then follow through. After all, God can get our attention and get us back on track, but He would probably prefer if we would not get off track to begin with.