But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the LORD, “O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”But the LORD replied, “Have you any right to be angry?” Jonah 4:1-4
Heavenly Father, there is no other god like you—none so engaged in our struggles, searching with his questions and lavish with affection. We are so thankful for the way you loved and pursued Jonah in his season of disconnect, for this is exactly how you relate to each of your children, including me, in our seasons of disconnect.
We don’t just sing, “prone to wonder, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love”, we actually live this lyric. Yet no matter how far and fast we run from you, you run after us and you always arrive before us. Whether the address of our Tarshish is literally in a far away country, or just up the street in the putrid neighborhood of our own self-righteousness, you come after us. Only you give us new mercies every day and steadfast love all day long. There is no other god like you, none, O Lord.
Father, what happens to our hearts? How do we get so disconnected from you emotionally, mentally and spiritually? How is it possible for us to have a theology that acknowledges you to be a “gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” and yet find ourselves filled with resentment, seething in anger and, at times, even wishing for life to end? Only you know, O Lord, only you know.
Grant us grace today to sit still in the holy presence of your searching questions. You don’t intend to shame us but free us; not embarrass us, but embrace us; not harm us but heal us. “Have you any right to be angry?”, you ask us. You never ask a question for your benefit, Father, but for ours. By the power of the Holy Spirit, show us what’s stoking our anger, fueling our fears, or numbing our hearts. Show us what’s lurking below our sadness and our madness.
Lord Jesus, we will stand up under our Father’s most intense questioning only because you stood in our place in the most intense judgment imaginable. How we praise you for your cross, Lord Jesus. How we praise you for the power and peace of your cross. Because you willingly took the holy wrath of our God, we will return to the dance floor of his grace. Hallelujah, what a Savior! Hallelujah, what a salvation. So very Amen we pray, in your compassionate and glorious name.