Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:06] Hey, everybody, I'm Chuck Allen, and thanks for giving me a few minutes today as we join together on the weekday podcast. You know, there's this. There's this space.
[00:00:15] It's between, for most of us, where we are versus where God wants us to be. And that space, y', all, that space is loaded.
[00:00:26] It's where excuses can sound reasonable. It's where fear can dress up like wisdom. It's where comfort disguises itself, like calling. I mean, we know all this space, don't we? I mean, we get it. It's the job, you know, isn't what you're supposed to do or keep staying in, but the benefits are good. It's the relationship that isn't healthy. But, well, at least it's familiar. It's that quiet nudge that God's been giving you but you're kind of successfully ignoring.
[00:00:56] And into that space, in comes God to Jonah's world, while he's in the thick of it, like us. In Jonah 1:1:3, the Bible says the Lord gave this message to Jonah, son of Amitti, get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. Jonah gets up, he goes the opposite direction. No argument, no negotiation, no, hey, God, can we talk about it later? He just bolts. Because the real bridge for Jonah isn't just from one city to another.
[00:01:30] It's the distance between his hatred and God's mercy. It's his bias in God's heart. It's his comfort and God's mission.
[00:01:39] I think that's where a lot of us are. We're not just avoiding a place. Sometimes we're avoiding a person. We're avoiding the kind of obedience that would expose what is actually ugly inside of us.
[00:01:51] So Jonah books a ticket to the far edge of the map, as if distance is going to somehow keep him from God's obedience.
[00:01:59] Here's a great thing for us to wrap our head around today on the weekday podcast. You cannot outrun a God who is committed to your transformation. Okay, let me say that again, and this is why you should share today's podcast. This is why you should post this on your social media. You cannot outrun a God who is committed to your transformation.
[00:02:21] So God sends a storm. Waves crashing, sailors panicking, Jonah sleeping. And in Jonah 1:12, it says, they wake him up, and eventually he says, throw me into the sea and it will become calm again. And then this line in Jonah 1:17.
[00:02:37] Now, the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow. Jonah. The storm wasn't random. The fish wasn't just punishment. They were both provisions. The storm shakes him, the fish holds him. Don't miss that. Sometimes God will shut you down to straighten you out. That's what he's done in my life, over and over and over again.
[00:02:59] Sometimes he'll take away the props, the distractions, the noise, until all that's left is honesty. And in Jonah 2, 2, the Bible says, in my great trouble, I cried to the Lord and he answered me. Jonah prays from inside the belly of the fish.
[00:03:16] And that's where the bridge starts. Not imperfection. Not with a 10 year plan, not with a new goal. It starts with God, I'm in trouble. And listen to these three words. I need you.
[00:03:32] Maybe today you're in what feels like a belly season, swallowed by circumstances, confined, limited, and stuck.
[00:03:42] What if this place is not the end of your story, but the construction site of your bridge? What if the storm and the fish in your life right now are not proof that God has abandoned you, but proof that he refuses to let you stay where you are?
[00:03:58] Here's your question for the day.
[00:04:01] What is one honest sentence you need to pray from your belly?
[00:04:07] Not the polished version, just the real one, the raw one. Maybe it's God. I'm tired of running. Maybe it's God. I don't even know if I trust you, but I need help. Maybe it's God. I'm scared to obey you. Whatever it is, say it. That's your first step toward crossing the right bridge. That's how the bridge begins.
[00:04:27] Maybe our prayer needs to be Jesus, I'm in the middle of a storm. I'm in a belly of a fish.
[00:04:34] I'm on the run.
[00:04:36] God, would you give me courage to stop pretending and start praying? Would you take away my fear, my excuses and my running and turn this space between here and there into like this super holy construction site between me and you and show me the first plank, the first honest sentence, and then, God, would you give me the courage to take this one small step back toward you?
[00:04:58] Amen. Amen and amen. Thanks very much for joining me on today's weekday podcast. Bye now.
