To understand the Jonah Mindset, you have to be familiar with the story of Jonah, as it appears in the Bible:
- God calls Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach
- Jonah Runs to Joppa to catch a ship for Tarshish
- During a great storm, Jonah volunteers to be thrown overboard
- A great fish swallows Jonah
- Jonah is in the fish for 3 days, then repents
- God caused the fish to spit Jonah out on dry land
- God calls Jonah a second time to go to Nineveh to preach
- The people of Nineveh repent
- Jonah is upset that the people were not destroyed
Jonah was commanded to go to Nineveh, but he made a clear decision to not obey. He reveals to us in Chapter 4 that he did not want to go to Nineveh because he knew the people would repent, causing God not to bring His judgment on them. I’m not as concerned with why he disobeyed God, as I am that he chose to disobey God. This is the mindset that I want to address. When God sends us to guide someone to repentance, then we need to obey Him.
In Matthew 28 there is a passage that has been dubbed “The Great Commission.”
“Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20, NLT)
We all have been called to a mission field of some sort. God does not send everyone to another country to proclaim His gospel. Some of us have just been asked to share with those around us. The problem is that often, when He issues this command to “Go”, we adopt a Jonah mindset; we do anything except deliver God’s message.
We can go into great detail, and describe how each element of this story applies to us today. I would rather just point out what I see as the overall point. First, God does not need any help in accomplishing the spread of the gospel to the entire world. However, He has chosen to call on each of us to at least do a small part by sharing with those around us. But, for whatever reason, we choose not to obey. Common excuses include:
- “I’m not a preacher”
- “I don’t know what to say”
- “I don’t have time”
- etc. etc. etc.
God is not calling us to deliver His message perfectly, but to just deliver it.
The late Christian musician Keith Green wrote the words over 30 years ago in a song called “Jesus Commands Us to Go”:
Jesus commands us to go
But we go the other way
So He carries the burden alone
While His children are busy at play
Feeling so called to stay
Oh, how God grieves and believes
That the world can’t be saved unless the ones He’s appointed obeys
His command and His stand for the world
That He loved more than life, oh He died, and He cries out tonight
Jesus commands us to go
It should be the exception if we stay
It’s no wonder we’re moving so slow
When His church refuse to obey
Feeling so called to stay
Oh how God comes as He starts the great judgment of fire
So He can gain, His greatest desire
‘Cause He knows that the souls of the lost
They can only be reached through us, we’re His hands and His feet
Jesus commands us to go
It should be the exception if we stay
It’s no wonder we’re moving so slow
When God’s children refuse to obey
Feeling so called to stay
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