God of the Second Chance...

Today as I was reading the book of Jona from the Bible, I was caught by the thought of how God is the God of the second chance. In the beginning of the book God spoke to Jona to go to Nineve, because He had a task for him to do there. However, Jona responded to the call from God by running away from Him... He took the boat to a completely different place. “How crazy is that”, we might think... but then we look at ourselves and we see that maybe we are in the same situation. There might be things that God has spoken to us about, and we have tried to ignore that still small voice we have heard... “No, that can´t be God...”, we might think.
We see that by running away from God´s plan or calling, Jona ended up in a storm and eventually found himself inside the belly of a big fish. Have there been times when you have found yourself in the storm and you see the huge waves of life around you? Have you ever felt so isolated in a dark place where you think, “This must be the end of the world”. It might not be so drastic as to say that we find ourselves in a stomach of a fish. However, every time we are trying to run away from things that God is calling us to do, or even from God himself, we always end up in some stormy weather... There is no place where we can run and hide. God sees us, He knows us better than we know ourselves, and He knows our pain, flaws, and our problems. Maybe you are trying to run away from a problem, a bad relationship, an intimate relationship with God... whatever it might be, it is not the best way. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Only when we walk on that road, living in the truth, then we can live life and life to the fullest...

Maybe you say, “You don´t understand...I have messed up so badly! I cannot go back”. Listen, I have good news for you! There is no circumstance, no sin, no darkness that is too dark or too difficult for God. Maybe you realize that you cannot do life alone, then the direction to run is towards God, not from Him! He is standing there with open arms, ready to love and embrace you. When you ask Him for forgiveness, He will forgive you and all the past is wiped away! That is our loving and graceful Father God! Maybe you have been hurt, maybe you feel that there are people in your life that you cannot forgive, or you feel that your life is so broken and you are full of pain... That is what God is there for!!! He wants to meet you exactly where you are and turn your situation around! We have nothing else than God to cling to! He is the only hope in this world! He is the God of the second chance! He wants to save you, love you, forgive you, help you forgive, heal you, restore you, restore broken relationships, restore broken families, etc.... He wants to flood your life with blessings!

When we continue to read the book of Jona, we see that he asked God for forgiveness and surrendered. He did what God told him to do and he was given a second chance. God spoke to him again and this time he chose to obey and follow the road God had for him. And not only did that affect his life, but it saved the whole city of Nineve, with 120 000 people, from destruction! That is what God wants to do in your life. When you walk the road that God has for you, not only will you see your life restored and healed and saved, but you will also see people around you turn around and follow Christ! So I want to encourage you- God is for you, not against you! There is nothing that can separate you from His love, if you only turn to Him and choose to follow Jesus and the exciting life He has in store for you! He loves you with an everlasting love and He gave His life so that you could be saved and live a life in freedom - all the way into eternity! Don´t let go of Jesus! He is the only hope we have! He is the way, the truth and the life! God bless you! Jenny :-)

(This is an little thing I wrote for our Youth webpage http://www.kaev.net/elusonanoored and I thought I could post it here as well... Hopefully it will bless someone...)