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Our Harrowing Experience Last Night

Have you ever had an experience where you just knew God had his hand on you and protected you? That happened to our family last night.

Last night, we were driving home from our date night. Matt’s parents watch the kids on Thursday nights, so Matt and I can go on a date. We picked the kids up and began driving home. Matt was driving, going about 70 mph on the highway. I was looking at my phone, telling Matt about a text I had just received when he suddenly jerked the car hard to the left, swerving into the other lane. My head jerked, and I caught the flash of a car that had already passed us.

It happened so fast, I barely saw the car. I watched as it flew down the highway and weaved in and out of traffic. We drive on this particular highway quite often, and there are always people driving too fast. But this one takes the cake. I have no idea how fast the car was going, but it was fast!

My heart racing, I glanced over at Matt. “Good reflexes. You okay?”

“Yeah, I saw him in the rear view mirror,” Matt said.

The kids were all quiet for a moment; then Maggie asked, “What happened?”

“Somebody was driving way too fast,” I said.

It took several moments for my heart rate to slow down. That had been too close. I have no idea what that driver was thinking. We were just driving in our lane. If Matt hadn’t moved when he did… it wouldn’t have been good. I spent a moment in quiet, thanking God for His protection of our family.

Seeing God’s Hand of Protection

There are times like that when you can easily look back and know with all certainty that God was protecting you and working in your life. I wonder how many times, though, God is working in and through our lives, and we have no idea. We just don’t see it because it’s not as obvious.

We’ve been so conditioned to just write God out of the story of our lives. We don’t even realize that we are erasing God from our lives.

Studying the Book of Jonah

I’m reading the book of Jonah right now in my morning time, and we’re also doing Jonah in our small group study on Tuesday nights. On Tuesday, we were talking about all the times God showed up directly in Jonah’s life. Matt asked the question, “What would happen if we just erased God from Jonah’s story?”

It really made me think. Honestly, it wouldn’t be that hard to do. Let’s look at the story of Jonah and God’s involvement in his life.

Seeing God’s Hand in Jonah’s Life

There are nine times we see God work directly in Jonah’s life. The book of Jonah is only four chapters long. It’s short, yet we see God acting over and over again in this small book.

Look at the nine times God directly does something.

1. God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh 1:2
2. God sent a storm 1:4
3. God prepares a fish to swallow Jonah 1:17
4. God tells the fish to spit Jonah out 2:10
5. God tells Jonah a second time to go to Nineveh 3:2
6. God grows a small tree to give Jonah shade 4:6
7. God creates a worm that destroys the tree 4:7
8. God causes a hot wind 4:8
9. God rebukes Jonah 4:9

Erasing God from Jonah’s Story

What would it look like if we totally erased God from the story of Jonah? We would have a very different story to tell. Yet, we could easily do it. Jonah could just have as easily done that. Here’s how Jonah could have seen it.

1. Jonah gets a feeling he should go to Nineveh.
2. A storm comes up while he’s out at sea
3. He gets thrown in the water, but a fish happened to be swimming nearby and swallows him
4. A few days later, the fish spits him out
5. He decides maybe he should go to Nineveh after all
6. He finds a small tree to give him shade
7. A worm comes and destroys his tree
8. A hot wind develops
9. He feels badly about how he acted

Erasing God in Our Own Lives

Do you see how easy it was to replace God in Jonah’s story? It’s pretty easy to take each of the times God directly acted in Jonah’s life and replace it with just life or circumstances.

It makes me wonder, how many times have I removed God from my story? How many times have I “rewritten” my story, erasing God from the picture. Things happen, and I just chalk it up to “life happening.”

Looking For God’s Hand

Jonah’s story encourages me because it makes me believe that God is more actively involved in my life than I give Him credit for. I believe if we really understood God, we would see His hand a whole lot more in our lives.

Let’s choose to actively seek God in the mundane of our ordinary day. I believe if we start searching for His involvement, we will end up seeing it so much more.

Then when you do see Him at work in your life, write it down so you don’t forget. I think we will begin to understand that God is alive and at work more in our lives than we ever realized.

For More Encouragement

For more encouragement on this topic, read When You Can’t See God Working in Your Life. If life looks different than you thought it would, and you’re having a hard time seeing God working in your own life, two books to encourage you would be It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way: Finding Unexpected Strength When Disappointments Leave You Shattered by Lysa TerKeurst or my book, The Hidden Pain: When You Fear God is No Longer Blessing Your Life.