Row, Row, Row Your Boat
Most of us are familiar with the overall story of Jonah. However, in a recent sermon, Jeremiah mentioned a small fact that I have often overlooked in the story with a potent application to our lives. In chapter 1, as Jonah has tried to run away from God, the sailors cast lots to “ … know on whose account this evil has come upon us” (1:7). After God allows the lots to identify Jonah, he ‘fesses up that he is running from God, Whom he identifies as “…the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land” (1:9). Jonah tells the sailors the way to stop the storm is to toss him overboard, but the sailors don’t want his death on their heads. Note that Jonah is willing to die rather follow God’s plan but these pagan sailors don’t want to commit murder.
Here is the part I had missed. In trying to keep from killing Jonah, the sailors “…rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them” (1:13). At this point, they realize they are making no progress and – while asking for forgiveness for murder – hurl Jonah into the sea.
These sailors were smarter than we, as Christians, sometimes are. How? They realized the truth of a statement Jeremiah made in his sermon: you can’t row your boat against God. They were trying to save a man’s life, but it didn’t fit with God’s plan so they weren’t successful.
No matter what we are trying to do, if it is not part of God’s plan, it won’t be successful. Even if the plan is a good plan! Paul, Luke, and Silas learned this in Acts 16. In verses 6-10 we read:
And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
So, if you are feeling frustrated about not accomplishing things that seem to you like a great idea, maybe you should stop and consider: are my plans in line with what the Lord would have me do? Maybe He is telling me to wait or that He has a different job for me right now.
Psalm 127:1 “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.”
Jeremiah 10:23 “I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.”
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AUTHOR: Amber Tatum
