Thought for the Day - Thursday 12 November

Thought for the Day Thursday 12th November The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.’ But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish….(Jonah 1: 1-3) When I was wondering about today’s thought I started to think about how I came to be doing something like this, I remembered the time when Caryl told me I was acting like Jonah and that it doesn’t work. You see, a few years ago Presbytery started to ask for people to come forward to do a Word and Worship Course and I thought ‘If I was younger I might sign up for that’, but I haven’t got the energy now, anyway they will want the younger ones to take it up. However, I kept seeing references to it everywhere I turned, and wishing I was younger, and I could do it. Then it got that when I heard about it I had to move away from where I could see it, because it was making me feel sick. Finally, one night at a Session meeting I had a sore head and couldn’t get away fast enough when it was mentioned. Next time I saw Caryl I spoke to her about it and that’s when she told me that I was acting like Jonah. I told her I was too old to be doing a course like that, but she put an end to that, so I said OK. I was willing to give it a try but if it got too much I was stopping. Well a lot of you know now how that turned out. Now when I think about it, I realise that, if God wants you to do something, it’s no use making excuses. He has got an answer for every excuse or argument you can come up with. The course was quite tiring, for me, (Stewart sailed through it) but so rewarding. I also know, now, that if God wants you to do something, He doesn’t leave you to tackle it alone. He was with me every step of the way, and I’ve got to say the absolute worst part was the Assessment service, but even then He didn’t allow my nerves to overtake me, he didn’t take them away, but helped me to cope with them. Instead of running away I should have been running to Him for the answer. So, be sure that if God wants you to do something, you need to accept it. Prayer Lord God We can run but we can’t outrun you, you made our legs too short for us to get away from you. We don’t want that anyway we want to obey you but sometimes fear takes over. When you have a task for us, give us the wisdom and strength to accept that you know best, and won’t ask us to do anything, without equipping us with the tools for the job. Thank you for trusting us to serve you. Amen