WORDS

God Is Merciful

Regret, fast, prayer, clamor, change God`s decision

19/10/2017

By: Obispo Roberto Santana

Jonah 3.5 says that the people of Nineveh believed in God, heard the preaching. They fasted and got humiliated every one of them. It came from the bigger to the smaller ones because of the example. When the people of Nineveh believed, God had decided to put an end to the people of Nineveh. Jonah was sent to preach them saying that in forty days the city would be terminated. God`s decision was taken based on their bad behavior, bad examples that city showed. When the king became aware, the most prominent authority at that time, he left his throne, took off his expensive clothes, got dressed in cotton bags and got humiliated in ashes. It`s not every king who would take such an attitude. When the king became aware, he ordered everyone not to eat or drink, men and animals, even cattle were included; everyone should fast. The king knew how big God is. God had determined to put an end to that city, but the prayer and the fast made God regret His decision. Even you, living under a sin condition, take an attitude and regret; God is mighty enough to revert all that. Praying very much, fasting a lot, a lot of humiliation, coming down to the dust, to the ashes, so God will lift you and exalt you. God is not a man for you to lie or a man`s son to regret. God doesn`t feel satisfaction at seeing a sinner`s death, but he has pleasure at seeing a sinner`s regrets. Many of the conditions we go through are the results of our bad behavior. At the moment we make a mistake if we regret from our heart and our soul, He is powerful enough to revert all that because He is God. No man understands why God always surprises us. Jonah himself didn`t understand God`s regret about Nineveh. He wanted God to fulfill what He said. He became upset, disappointed, and angry. Jonah heard in his land that he had to come to Nineveh to say that God would destroy the city, but instead of doing what God`s voice told him to do, he ran away to Tarshish because he knew that God is merciful. God regretted because there was humiliation, fast, and clamor. It doesn`t matter who you are, if you cry out from your heart to Him, God erases your past and does all over again from now on.

Maybe your lack of conquest is the result of a mistake which if you regret from your heart and soul, God will answer you. The king didn`t get dressed in bags and sat down on ashes for nothing; he did it from the heart. If you and I pretend, God will know it because He knows everything.

We have to assume our identity as Christians, God`s men and women, and if the regret comes from the heart and soul, with clamor and fast, He hears and makes everything different. For us to win, the first victory has to be about ourselves because we are our worst enemies. Some of us declare our own defeat. There is a way out for you and I while we breathe. Never be negative and always claim in Jesus your victory, take this attitude. Humanly speaking, it was impossible to have a way out for Nineveh. King Hezekiah suffered the same under God`s prophecy by Isaiah that he would die. One thing is to hear from a man, a doctor, another person that you will die. But to hear from God you feel you don`t have a way out apparently. There is nothing above God, who Hezekiah could ask for help but God Himself who told him he would die. Hezekiah prayed, and even the prophet didn`t leave the castle. He was said to meet God again and come back saying he would live fifteen years more. Nothing was lost, nothing is lost. You who think that God never hears you, never sees you, be aware that it was God who ordered the God`s man to do that to us, a fast of winners. Fasting to win, to touch God`s heart in yours and my favor. If you get humiliated before God at the right time, He will exalt you. Maybe something happens to us allowed by God Himself, but if we regret He can change our condition because He doesn`t have satisfaction at the death of the sinner but the regret. Humiliating ourselves is not enough, it`s necessary to pray, to fast, to clamor, and change your life, regret your mistakes, never do it again. It`s a set of actions. When this set exists, the forgiveness and transformation come together. That`s the real conversion. With it, God is mighty to give us a new opportunity.