THE ENCOUNTER
Mercy Is Where You Deserve a Shark
But God Sends a Whale
“Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah... Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly... And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.”
— Jonah 1:17, 2:1–2, 2:10
This is about seeing how far mercy has chased you, even in the years before you ever read this.
HE RAN. YOU'VE RUN TOO.
God said Nineveh. Jonah bought a ticket to Tarshish. That's not a man who's confused — that's a man in open rebellion. He knew exactly where God wanted him, and he turned around and walked the other way.
Brother, you know that walk. Every man in has taken it. God said one thing, and you/we did the other — with your wife, with your kids, with the bottle, with the anger, with the things you told yourself nobody would ever find out about. You knew. And you ran anyway. You ran away from God.
WHAT YOU EXPECTED
When a man runs from God on purpose, he's not expecting rescue. He's expecting the storm to catch up with him. He's expecting the water to close over his head and for that to be the end of it. Jonah didn't ask the sailors to throw him in because he thought God would save him — he expected to sink and die. He expected the deep. He expected the teeth. That's what you expected too, isn't it. Not rescue. But consequences from a God most don't know. You figured the storm you started would finish you off, and honestly, some nights you thought that was you deserve.
But that is not the heart of God. This is the problem, we do not know the incredible living heart of God!
But mercy is where you deserve a shark — and God sends a whale.
THE FISH WASN'T THE PUNISHMENT
Look again at that verse. God didn't send something to finish Jonah off in the water — He sent something to hold him. To carry him. To keep him alive in the exact place he should have died, and to carry him back to shore instead of dragging him down into the deep.
That's mercy. Real mercy isn't “you got away with it.” Mercy is “you deserved to go under, and I sent something to carry you instead.” That's the same trade, your sin for His forgiveness. This is just proof God's been running that trade a lot longer than you knew.
SOME OF YOU ARE STILL RUNNING
Some of you are still out there running — you know exactly where God told you to go and what to do, and you're still headed in the wrong direction.
You've been bracing for the storm to finish what you started, waiting for the consequences to swallow you whole and never let go.
Hear this: God is not done with you, I'll say that again, God is NOT done with you. What looks like the belly of the fish — the dark place, the rock bottom, the place you never wanted to end up — might be the very thing carrying you back to shore instead of down into the deep. Heed the message, please.
Jonah prayed inside the belly of that fish. Not after he hit dry land — in the middle of the mercy, before he ever saw the shore. That's where his turnaround started. Not after the rescue. Right in it. So don't wait for everything to be fixed before you talk to Him. Pray from right where you are — in the truck, on the job site, at two in the morning when you can't sleep. Pray from the belly of whatever you're in right now.
We deserve the shark. God sent the whale. That's not luck. That's not
coincidence. That's the loving character of God — chasing down a runaway
man with mercy shaped like a rescue.
“But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.” — Psalm 86:15
Friend; Stop running. Let God carry you the rest of the way. Come to The Encounter, then have a Battle Plan for your life and those that love you.
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