From Ruin to Restoration - Part 6 - Jonah

Backsliding is not always obvious. A believer can be faithful in church attendance, sing, teach, and even preach while the heart quietly grows cold toward God. That is where we find Jonah. When the Lord commanded him to go and cry against the great city of Nineveh, the prophet rose up to flee to Tarshish in the opposite direction. His disobedience came at a price and started a downward spiral: down to Joppa, down into the ship, down into the sea, and down into the belly of a great fish that God had prepared. But that fish was not merely God's punishment; it was God's preservation. At rock bottom Jonah repented, and the word of the LORD came unto him the second time. God restored his ministry, used his eight word sermon to spark the repentance of an entire city, kept performing surgery on his heart even after his obedience, and turned his three days in the fish into a sign pointing to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.