Avoiding God

Is there anyone you find yourself avoiding lately? For some, you might be avoiding that person who you have learned is always talking but never listening; always bringing problems but never solving any. Others find themselves avoiding people because they are just too busy to slow down and engage in conversation. Then there are those who avoid certain people because they may owe them something or have wronged them in some way. We have all been in situations where we find ourselves avoiding someone for some reason or other and very often we do it without really realizing it. But have you stopped to consider whether you may have been avoiding God lately
– maybe without realizing it?

Jonah was a man who knew what it meant to try to avoid God. Because Jonah didn’t want to do what God had told him to do, Jonah found himself running from God. In fact, there is no record of Jonah praying to the Lord until he had been in the belly of the great fish for three days – now that’s stubbornness! But there’s nothing like a little pain and desperation in our life to wake us up to our need for God. In fact, for some, pain seems to be the only wavelength that they’ll respond to.

What has the Lord been speaking to your heart lately? Is it something that would be challenging for you? Is it something outside of your character or comfort zone? Maybe it’s something that will require personal sacrifice or, like Jonah, perhaps it’s something you don’t really want to do. The way to overcome all of these excuses is to walk by faith. Walking by faith simply means that you stop dismissing the voice of the Lord and you begin to listen to Him and trust Him so that you cooperate with Him rather than find yourself resisting and avoiding Him – even without realizing it. When we avoid the Lord, He has a way of ‘putting the pressure on’ as necessary in order to break us down and get our attention… Just ask Jonah.

If you sense that God has been trying to get your attention lately, you might as well pull a Jonah and give up. Instead of being too busy for God or running from Him because of what He may be saying to you, embrace what He is doing. He made us so that we’d only be satisfied when we’re lined up with His will, when we’re obedient to Him, and when we have a relationship with Him. No matter where else you might turn apart from that, you will come up empty.

So press in, repent if necessary, and let God have his way. Then your fellowship with Him will become sweet again and your joy in Him will be restored as you discover that you are no longer…

Avoiding God.