Jonah's idols...and ours

Early this morning, while reading the book of Jonah in The One Year Bible, I saw it. How many innumerable times have I heard or read this familiar old story and never seen it? Chalk yet another one up to my total cluelessness! But there it was right there: Jonah sits in the belly of the whale after disobeying God and has a little worship service! Go figure. My way of thinking?--things are not looking, or smelling, too good right about now. But not Jonah. He praises and prays to God, while still inside the fish, mind you, for: "In my distress I called to the Lord, and He answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and You listened to my cry." (Jonah 2:1) There's a lesson right there about the power of trusting prayer and thanksgiving even in the midst of our hopeless hardships.

But here's the part I love-and had somehow never noticed before--"When my life was ebbing away, I remembered You, Lord, and my prayer rose to You, to Your holy temple. Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to You. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the Lord." (Jonah 2:7-9) Jonah is worshipping and thanking God for his salvation even while things still looked mighty hopeless, trapped within the dark , smelly whale. But Jonah now knew His Lord. And he also knew himself and the terrible price he had been paying for clinging to those worthless idols. In the very next verse, once Jonah had learned what the God knew Jonah needed to learn, we're told, "the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land." (v.10) Again, doesn't sound terribly appealing to me to be vomited out of a smelly fish, but, boy, I bet to Jonah, it was cause for continuing his little worship service! Deliverance out of sin can sometimes be a messy, difficult, unpleasant process... but it sure is glorious on the other side!

But as I read those words, "those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs," I had to ask myself: what idols am I clinging to and what grace, what blessings am I forfeiting because of my insistence on clutching onto those idols for dear life? The thing is, when we cling to those idols, we are the losers! We tend to think God is some divine kill-joy who doesn't want us to enjoy life, but it's just the opposite! He who made us and loves us with infinite abandon, desperately desires that we forsake that which is killing us and costing us His joy and peace and hope and security. It's like that proverbial child playing in a paltry little mud puddle when right before them God is offering the magnificent boundless ocean! He wants us to enjoy infinite, abundant, joyous eternal LIFE, and instead, we hunker down in our little fox holes of idolatry, deluding ourselves into thinking that this is surely better than His precious, glorious gift of LIFE!

So I have to ask: to what idols are you clinging? What habit, what preoccupation, what selfish, secret little thing do you have to have or do or experience to keep you "happy?" It's so easy to see this in other people, isn't it? "O boy, look at her, she is so materialistic!" Or, "he is such a workaholic and is obsessed with success."

But what idols does the Lord long for you to pry from your hands and give to Him? A desire to please other people more than a desire to please God? A need to control everything and everyone? A critical, prideful spirit? An obsession with making sure your children are excelling and succeeding? A continual need to compare yourself or your family or your life with other people? A desire for more stuff or new things or better clothes or house or... whatever? How about a preoccupation with your appearance or your body? Is there some relationship or desire that has become unhealthy and begun to slide into the idolatry category?

Anything, anything, anything we love more than our gracious, great God is an idol. And that idol will cost us dearly--we will forfeit God's amazing grace and His wonderful gifts that He longs to bestow on those whose hearts are fully committed to walking with Him.

Forgive me Lord for those idols in my life! How I long to join Jonah in proclaiming, "But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to You. What I have vowed, I will make good. Salvation comes from the Lord!" Sure, it's a sacrifice to give up some of those long-cherished idols, but look what we gain in return! Salvation. Joy. Peace. Hope. Security. Love. Forgiveness. Grace. Life--abundant, full, infinite, joyous Life.

Might we do it today--sacrifice those idols--with thanksgiving--and watch what our Glorious, Gracious God will do! No telling what we've been forfeiting--isn't it about time to find out? He's ready and waiting. To our Salvation, our Sustainer, our Savior be all the glory.