Have you ever felt like a person or a people group deserve punishment, but you don't?

There was a man like that in Scripture.

His name was Jonah, and he lacked mercy, but he expected to receive it.

Are we like Jonah?

Welcome to Keep the Heart podcast with Francie Taylor.

Francie is an author, teacher, and conference speaker known for sharing biblical insights that are practical and inspiring.

Now back to today's valuable study.

This is a similar study to one we did a couple of years ago where I asked the question, are we anything like Judas?

Judas had some characteristics that were really disturbing, but common.

We don't always see our own flaws,

but we easily point them out and see them in other people, don't we? A careful study of the Book of Jonah reveals several common problems. It's easy to point out Jonah's faults, but he was really a lot like us. We want people

to forgive us when we're wrong, but we may not be so willing to show them the same kind of mercy.

Let's study four lessons from this book of Jonah. First, Jonah disregarded the word of God. Jonah was a prophet sent by the Lord to deliver

a specific message. In the first two verses of chapter one, God instructed Jonah to go to the city of

Nineveh and cry against it because of their wickedness. Now instead of obeying this instruction,

Jonah did the opposite.

Listen to verse three. But Jonah rose up to flee under Tarshis from the presence of the Lord and went down to Joppa and he found a ship going to Tarshish, so he paid the fare thereof and went down

into it to go with them under Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

God said, go.

Jonah's behavior said, no.

Are we anything like Jonah?

Do we only obey God when it suits us?

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