Rerouted: 30 Days Through the Book of JonahSample

Fully Devoted

Lyli Dunbar

Jonah 2:7-8

With a sweet smile, my young niece invited me to join her for a cup of tea in her make-believe kitchenette. I accepted and pretended to sip from an empty plastic container. “Do you want more?” she asked. My stomach growled, reminding me I needed real food — pretend provisions could never satisfy.

Sadly, I’ve accepted other invitations to vain pursuits far more serious than toy food. Maybe you have, too, chasing success, beauty or wealth that never delivers the "better life" it promises. Embracing earthly treasures always leaves us empty.

Our merciful God knows we are easily enticed by the world and its false gods, so He charges us: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3), and “do not turn to idols … I am the Lᴏʀᴅ your God” (Leviticus 19:4). Jonah’s story echoes this, reminding us that we forsake the steadfast love of God when we place our faith elsewhere.

The people of Nineveh worshipped false gods — teachers of lies (Habakkuk 2:18) — that ensnared them in sin. Jonah also turned from God when he disobeyed God's calling to go to Nineveh (Jonah 1:1-3). Yet when Jonah’s life was “fainting away” in Jonah 2:7, he was physically, mentally and spiritually exhausted and recognized the futility of his own way.

Like an idol worshipper, Jonah had forsaken the Lord and groaned under the weight of sin. But when he finally came to his senses, he “remembered the Lᴏʀᴅ” in Jonah 2:8 and turned back to Him, choosing to honor God instead of resisting and running away.

Today, we face similar temptations to trust in empty idols or our own ideas, but we are called to “pay regard” to God’s steadfast love (Jonah 2:8). When we cherish sin, we suffer (Psalm 66:18-20). But confessing and renouncing sin leads to God’s mercy (Proverbs 28:13). He lifts us from despair and secures for us a living hope and an unfading inheritance in heaven (1 Peter 1:3-4).

Choosing to live fully devoted to the one true God will never leave us empty.