New Years is always an interesting time. New Year’s Eve has a variety of different celebratory rituals and then there is the group that could not care less and just go to bed. At one point in my life I wanted to party and rage the night away. These days I don’t see the point in waiting for the ball to drop. I think it’s just another day.
A new year, for some, is a time to look forward to because they feel as though they get a fresh start. Perhaps 2018 was not the best year for some people while others may feel that it was great and hope that the success can continue.
I have found that every year there are things that were great and things that were anything but. I have concluded that every year there is something that isn’t going to go my way or that one day I am going to get news I am unprepared to hear. 2018 had it’s share of mistakes and failures, but it also had many victories and successes.
I was reading the other day in Jonah, which is one of my favorite books of the Bible, if not my favorite. We all have heard the many Sunday school lessons about this man. We hear about the whale, or the fish, (always an interesting debate) that swallowed him, and we hear about the gourd and the tree, but anything more those few lessons we seldom hear much depth about Jonah.
In chapter three of Jonah, one of my favorite passages of the Bible is found in verse one. Jonah 3:1, “Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the second time…” Why is this such a great passage of scripture? I’m glad you asked. In this sentence we find the grace of God put on display. Jonah runs from God and then realizes that he can’t actually hide from God. I have found myself in that same situation multiple times in my life and I’m sure that you may have as well. Many times and in many ways we attempt to run from God and perhaps have many reasons why we think we need to run. We can run and hide from many people that we are close too us such as pastors, preachers, accountability partners, judges, the law, family, etc. However, we can never run from God. He is omnipresent, meaning that He is everywhere. Jonah confesses that he has done wrong and the belly of the whale that he has been trapped in is no longer a prison for him. God gave Jonah a second chance, which means that you and I are capable of receiving this same amazing grace and wonderful second chances in this thing that we experience everyday called life.
This causes me to rejoice and also reflect the many second and third chances that I have been given by God that I should have never gotten. That is the beauty of what grace is. We receive far greater than what we have ever deserved. For some, a new year may not be exciting because just a few days ago your 2018 was in shambles and you may have been wondering if God had taken the year off. It’s now 2019 and you aren’t hyped up for new beginnings; a new year of challenges and things to get victories about because the struggles that you carried a handful of hours ago from the previous year are still very much there, but the thing is, when Jonah finally got to Nineveh and preached to those wicked people like he was supposed to, the whole city was spared. The people of Nineveh probably didn’t know the path that Jonah had taken to get there, unless of course he shared that with them, but we have no evidence of that. The people of Nineveh didn’t know the mess that Jonah had made. They just heard the message that he carried.
The new year means for whomever may be reading this is that you have a chance to spread a message. One that is unlike any other. A message that is a light in a dark place. We all have a testimony of the amazing grace that God has given us. So, this year instead of staying worn down because of our faults and failures of 2018, share the victories that we had.
“Jonah’s narrative reveals God as forgiving and willing to hear and respond to prayers of repentance – whether from rebellious individuals or pagan nations. We learn too that repentance is a lifetime need, not a one-time event.” – David Jeremiah
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