A song
touched me deeply growing up. As my father and mother led eight children into
forty-eight states, Canada and a bit in Mexico, we sang “How About Your
Heart . . . is it right with God, that’s the thing that counts
today. Is it black with sin, is it pure within? Won’t you ask Christ
in today . . . People often see you, just as you are outside; Jesus really
knows you, for He sees inside . . .”
There is
temptation to join up, be part of the crowd: the loud, boisterous, opinionated
. . . at times drunken, violent, immoral players. Are you a Believer
in Jesus? Ponder your path…walk away! Say to your loving Heavenly
Father, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me
. . . take not your Holy Spirit from me . . . restore to me the joy of your
salvation.” Psalm 51:10.
If we don’t
get it right inside, we might end up for a lifetime with a darkened
heart.
Sure, strong
opinions if they are based on the truth of the Bible are good . . . but where
is your heart! The Book of Jonah is about (you know) Jonah and the whale. He did his best to run from God...and "God prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah..." He was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights...he repented inside the whale, decided to go to Nineveh and warn the people. "Yet forty days and forty nights and Nineveh will be overthrown..."
Even the
wicked King of Nineveh got it. When the reticent prophet Jonah finally
obeyed the LORD and walked through Nineveh for three days, he shouted out loud: the King
responded from his heart; “For word came to the King of Nineveh, and he arose
from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth,
and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through
Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, let neither man nor
beast, herd nor flock, taste anything: let them not feed, nor drink water. But
let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea,
let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in
their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his
fierce anger that we perish not? And God saw their works that they turned
from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he
would do unto them; and he did it not.” Jonah 3:6-10
Now is your turn and my mine. Walk away from the violence, immorality, drugs and drunkenness . . . Let your prayer be, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation.” The LORD from Heaven will help you, assure you, be with you.