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Weekly Meditation
by Gina McAlexander
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
1The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2'Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.' 3So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days' walk across. 4Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's walk. And he cried out, 'Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!' 5And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. 10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
God has been speaking, or saying "words" before the world began. The first recorded words of God went something like this according to Genesis 1:3, and God said, Let there be light: and there was light. If God started the world as we know it with spoken word, what makes us think that God isn't still speaking today? In this story, we have the prophet Jonah being told to go and deliver a not so popular message to this great city Ninevah that they were going to be overthrown. When the people and the king heard the news, they immediately believed God, proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth and ashes. They turned from the wrong they were doing and sought to be forgiven and God did forgive them and didn't over throw their city.
Would that happen today? Could a child of God proclaim a message like that today and would we stop what we are doing in our everyday busy lives and respond with fasting and prayer? Does God speak to us today? And if so, can we even hear God above all the other voices? I wonder how many times or in how many different ways God speaks to us, trying to get our attention?
My step son, who also happens to be named Jonah, asked me to download a song for a ringtone for his cell phone. The song was "I Hear Voices" by Rev Theory. It has very interesting lyrics too lengthy to quote here, but I think you should look them up if you get the chance. It talks about hearing voices in my head "they talk to me". I bring this up because we are constantly bombarded with pictures, voices, sounds, and just plain noise all of the time. So the question is who or which voices are we going to listen to?
Proverbs 4 gives some great advice and direction, particularly verses 20- 23; 20My child, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21Do not let them escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. 22For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. 23Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. I believe these verses give us a great start to what we should be listening to or focusing our attention on.
Jesus preached a similar message on the importance of listening. In many of his parables, you see the phrase "you that have ears to hear, let them hear." I use to think that was an odd statement, because surely most of the people in his time had ears! But then I realize there is something much deeper going on. I really believe God has been and continues to speak to us all the time, not by the things in this broken world that harm us or threaten us, but by a beautiful sunrise or sunset, in a song, by a kind word, a smile, or a warm embrace. I think that in order to hear God's "Godcast" in today's multi-media world, we have to intentionally dial into God's frequency. FM and AM radio frequencies are broadcasting all of the time but if we are not tuned into the right frequency we miss the music or news we want to hear. So just like the radio is broadcasting 24/7, so is God. How do we tune in? I believe by getting quiet and being still. Psalm 46:10 supports this theory when the psalmist wrote of God speaking, "Be still and know that I am God".
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