In the Sermon on the Mount, the paramount moment of Jesus’ teaching, our Savior commands us to, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you… Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” This is never easy is it. We struggle to do it. In her book, the Forgiveness Journal, author Lysa Terkeurst captures a right attitude of forgiveness. She writes, “God, I give this situation to You. I release my evidence of all the reasons they were so wrong, my need to see this person punished, my need for an apology, my need for this to feel fair, my need for You to declare me right and them wrong,Show me what I need to learn from all of this. And then give me Your peace in place of my pain.” A difficult prayer to be sure. It’s one our stubborn and reluctant prophet Jonah needed to learn as well. On today’s podcast, we’ll consider how God exposes Jonah’s character and consider how it might mirror our own.
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