We have all been shocked and horrified by the barbaric and sinister war being waged against Ukraine. The overwhelming size of the invading force; Vladimir Putin's threat of using nuclear weapons against any who seek to intervene and thwart his imperialist intent; and his constant blatant and menacing lying to the world and especially to his own people, all sicken and outrage us. If we are not careful, we can lose sight of the fact that God is Sovereign over all things, is still on the throne, continues to work his purposes out, and is good! We are also in danger of opening our hearts to thoughts that are more in line with the enemies' than with our Father's; at least I know I am.

I have just read through the book of Jonah in one sitting and found it very pertinent to all of this. I do encourage you to read it for yourself. Basically all that happened to the prophet revolved around him wanting God to destroy Israel's powerful and deadly enemy Assyria whose capital was Nineveh. He didn't share the Father's heart over the plight of the lost; over those whose wickedness "had come up before" him. He knew God to be "merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love" and he didn't want the Assyrians to benefit from this. What have our thoughts been like towards Putin?

What was the Father's response to Jonah? He tried every which way to win him over, but the book ends without our knowing whether he succeeded. God even provided shade for Jonah while he waited and watched, hoping Nineveh's repentance would not prevent their destruction.

 "'Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?' 'Yes,' Jonah retorted, 'even angry enough to die!' 'You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly. But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?'"

God felt sorry for Nineveh, and God felt sorry for Jonah, despite his disobedience, racism and violently harsh judgmental attitude. The Father's heart is full of grace and loving-kindness. "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things and desperately wicked" (Jer 17:9). Praise God he has given us new hearts and we are being changed into his likeness! Let us put to death all ungodly thoughts and words and welcome the transformation God is bringing about! And let us continue to pray for all caught up in this conflict and all world leaders as they seek for the best solution.