3 Signs You're Running Ahead of God

 

When we get impatient with God's timeline, we can also get judgmental, resentful and even angry. Jonah did the same thing when God extended grace to the people of Ninevah. But God used, of all things, a shade plant to teach Jonah a lesson about mercy and compassion.

SCRIPTURE

Jonah 4
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly,[a] and he was angry. 2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”

5 Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. 6 Now the Lord God appointed a plant[b] and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort.[c] So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” 10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

NOTES

3 Signs You Are Running Ahead of God

1. Displeased with God's Plan

2. Think My Plan Is Better

3. Loss of Perspective

Response: Let's run with God!

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Share with someone close when you have been displeased or angry with God.

2. Read Ex. 34:6-7. Neh. 9:17, Ps. 86:15 and Joel 2:13. What is similar in these passages with the story of Jonah?

3. How would you encourage another believer to not run ahead of God?

4. There are many other bible characters like Saul and Solomn who lost God's perspective; why did this happen to them?

5. Read Ps 77:8-10. How would you describe God's compassion to someone else?