Answering the Lord
And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time . . . So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. – Jonah 3:1,3
A while back, my computer was on the fritz. Whenever I would open up a certain program, the next time I would
click on an icon a strange info box would pop up. It said something to this effect: “Your computer is busy. It has either stopped responding or is
waiting for a command from you.” Well, I knew it was not waiting for a command from me, since I had just commanded it to do something and that was
what had caused the box to pop up!
Buttons at the bottom of the window gave me two options. I could wait a little while longer or close the program entirely. Usually, I would wait for a
little bit to see if anything changed, and then give up and close the program. This pattern went on for several months, until one day I turned on my
computer and could tell something was seriously wrong. I was not able to open any of the files, and I soon learned that my computer had crashed. In
the end, its hard drive had to be wiped clean and all of my programs had to be reinstalled.
The words in the box that had continually popped up kept coming back to me. “Your computer is busy. It has either stopped responding or is waiting for
a command from you.” I wondered, Is this the message the Lord receives when Christians do not respond to His commands? Sometimes people neglect to
promptly obey the Lord’s instructions, yet He is very patient. Often He will choose to wait a little longer and then send the instruction again. However,
as was the case with my computer, it is dangerous to ignore the Lord. Eventually, there can be a spiritual crash and the need to start all over.
We never want to tell the Lord we are too busy to obey Him. Today, let’s determine in our hearts to be open to what the Lord would say to us, and answer
Him with willing hearts the first time He speaks.