The Jonah Attitude

Jonah 4:1-3(NLT) 

4 This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry. ² So he complained to the Lord about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this,Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. ³ Just kill me now, Lord! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.”

Our Sunday school lesson this morning is about Jonah and this week our teacher emailed all of us to read the book of Jonah.  Yesterday I logged on to biblegateway.com to listen to Jonah's story. I recommend you do the same thing because in 6 minutes, you can hear Jonah's entire story told. In a nutshell, God called Jonah to go to Nineveh to announce God's judgment because of their wickedness. Jonah got on a boat going the opposite direction because the Ninevites were enemies of God's people. While on the boat, a storm arose and the others on board figured out the storm was on account of Jonah's disobedience. Jonah suggested they throw him overboard where he was swallowed by a big fish. After 3 days in the fish's belly, Jonah cried out to the Lord that he would obey and go to Nineveh. The fish upchucked Jonah. He went to Nineveh to preach and the people repented.
All's well that ends well, right? Wrong! The people repented and Jonah was mad. Jonah was mad because God acted according to His divine nature. He relented and did not bring destruction on the people. God would always rather have repentant hearts than show His power in mass destruction. He isn't willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
What about us? Are we quick to offer forgiveness when we have been wronged or would we sort of like to see the guilty party pay for it? Are we still keeping record of their wrongs? Like the Lord, let's be quick to offer forgiveness and restore the relationship.