Morning Coffee With Renae

Jonah 4:2 “He prayed to the Lord, ‘O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending [...]

Jonah 4:1 “But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry.”
Have you ever been seething, boiling angry? I’m not talking about a little miffed. I’m talking about the kind of angry where you feel you will explode, the kind of angry where you want to hit someone or destroy something. That’s the kind of anger Jonah [...]

Jonah 3:7 – 9 “Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let [...]

Jonah 3:6 “When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust.”
When most of us think of Jonah’s story, we think of the miracle of one man being trapped in a fish’s belly for three days, and [...]

Jonah 3:3 “Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very important city – a visit required three days.”
I will never forget my first visit to New York. As a native Texan, I was accustomed to wide open spaces and mile upon mile of open land. I knew [...]

Jonah 2:7 “When my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, LORD,
and my prayer rose to you,
to your holy temple.”
Remember the saying, “Hindsight is better than foresight?” So true. Jonah was writing this from hindsight. He had already been delivered from that fish’s intestines. He had visited the dark side, and lived to tell about it.
Sometimes, [...]

Jonah 2:4 “I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again
toward your holy temple.’”
Have you ever felt hopeless? Jonah had every reason to feel that way. Seriously. He was praying this prayer from inside a fish’s intestines. Ew.
Yet, he had hope. He said, I will look again toward your holy [...]

Jonah 2:3 “You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.
Have you ever been punished for something, and you knew you deserved the punishment?
Yeah, me too. And it’s not fun.
Yet, when I think back to the times, [...]

Jonah 2:2 He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry.”
I’ve had some pretty distressful experiences in my life. But honestly, I think Jonah has me beat. I have never been inside the belly [...]

Jonah 2:1 “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.”
Have you ever found yourself inside the belly of a fish?
Well, I don’t mean literally. That would be highly unusual. But have you found yourself in a bad situation of your own making, and you didn’t have any idea how you were going [...]