{"id":25705,"date":"2015-05-08T00:25:40","date_gmt":"2015-05-08T04:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=25705"},"modified":"2015-05-07T11:31:34","modified_gmt":"2015-05-07T15:31:34","slug":"25705","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2015\/05\/08\/25705\/","title":{"rendered":"God Sent A Fish"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"encouragementbloggraphicromans15\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cGo to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.\u201d \u00a0But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.
\nHe went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. \u00a0After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
\nThen the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. \u00a0All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. \u00a0And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. \u00a0But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. \u00a0The captain went to him and said, \u201cHow can you sleep? \u00a0Get up and call on your god! \u00a0Maybe He will take notice of us so that we will not perish.\u201d \u00a0Then the sailors said to each other, \u201cCome, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.\u201d \u00a0They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. \u00a0So they asked him, \u201cTell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?\u201d \u00a0He answered, \u201cI am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.\u201d \u00a0This terrified them and they asked, \u201cWhat have you done?\u201d \u00a0(They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.) \u00a0The sea was getting rougher and rougher. \u00a0So they asked him, \u201cWhat should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?\u201d \u00a0\u201cPick me up and throw me into the sea,\u201d he replied, \u201cand it will become calm. \u00a0I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.\u201d \u00a0Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. \u00a0But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. \u00a0Then they cried out to the Lord, \u201cPlease, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man\u2019s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.\u201d \u00a0Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. \u00a0At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him. \u00a0Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. <\/span><\/p>\n

Jonah 1:2-17 NIV<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 * <\/span><\/p>\n

I have been Jonah before. \u00a0I may not have gone to the lengths that Jonah did to escape…but I had my own boat I floated away in. \u00a0Oh, how miserable I was. \u00a0Like Jonah, there were many storms and I took some of my shipmates down, too. \u00a0But God sent a fish for me also. \u00a0In a different form, of course.<\/p>\n

We are so loved by our Creator that He will go to any lengths to rescue us\u2014even from ourselves, even when we are the cause. \u00a0And when we try to run away, He will send a “fish” to redirect us. \u00a0Oh, how He gives so much grace and mercy.<\/p>\n

We don’t have to feel shame and guilt because we are already forgiven. God wants the very best life for us. That’s why He leads us to places that we may not want to be…but He knows what’s best for us and He has already seen the rest of our story.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 * <\/span><\/p>\n

What are you running from today? \u00a0Are you in the middle of a storm? \u00a0Hang on friend, help is in your reach. \u00a0Just ask your Guide to show you a new way! \u00a0Do you know Him? \u00a0Jesus longs to be in your life. \u00a0If you want Him to be your Savior then pray with me.<\/p>\n

\n

Dear God, I know that I am a sinner. I believe that Jesus is Your Son and that He died for my sins. I need forgiveness. I ask that You come into my heart today and be my Lord. Thank You. Help me to walk with You daily. In Jesus\u2019 name, amen.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cGo to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.\u201d \u00a0But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. \u00a0After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":20533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6228],"tags":[338,1287,425,2069,7026,8831,8830,589,1547],"class_list":["post-25705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-encouragement-2","tag-encouragement","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-god-is-faithful","tag-god-knows-what-is-best","tag-god-sent-a-fish","tag-jonah-12-17","tag-kim-spring","tag-sinners-prayer","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/encouragementbloggraphicromans15.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s39pHp-25705","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25705"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25711,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25705\/revisions\/25711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}