God or Gas? (an encouragement to students)

(this is another post from our Jonah Challenge for Middle and High School Students)

Funny title I know, but a good question to ask — especially when it comes to determining if we truly are experiencing a “calling” from God, or just the result of too much Chipotle. The funny thing about Jonah is that he seems like a real baby at times in the story found in the Bible. Yet, God still called him to something…God still had a specific purpose for his life. Check this out:

Jonah 1:1-2

1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

God told Jonah to do something. God had an assignment for Jonah. Maybe it was something Jonah FELT deep in his soul? Maybe Jonah actually HEARD God with his own ears? Whatever happened, we know this: God does give specific callings for people. Is God calling you? How can you tell?

Here are a few things to help you out:

 

The God of the Seas

Jonah 1:4-10

4 Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. 6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.”

7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.

8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”

9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”

10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?”

Reading the story of Jonah can teach us so much. Here we see in Jonah chapter 1 that God sent a huge storm right at the run-away prophet. The storm terrifies the sailors. They are afraid that they are going to die. They cry out to their gods…but nothing happens. Then they find Jonah sleeping. So they wake him up and tell him to cry out to his God to see if He will spare their lives. Little do they know that Jonah worshiped the one, true God…the only One who could truly save them. Later, they asked Jonah, “who are you?” Jonah replies, “I worship the LORD — the one true God — the God who created both land and sea.” We read that the sailors were terrified at this response. Why? Because in the ancient Near East, the God who controlled the seas was the most mighty of all. And Jonah basically said, “I worship the God of the seas — the most powerful of all.”